What Could Be Better
by SoapiestAuto780
Summary: Join my O.C.'s as some find adventure, some find love, and others still find closure for their past and what they have done, however, there is a war coming and now the question is if they will be ready. Rated M to be safe. Confirmed sighting of canon characters in Chapter 7. This is a SYOC Fic. Link to character submission forum is on my profile. I suck at making summaries.
1. My OC's

**A/N: Hey guys, what's up. I'm SoapiestAuto780, however; I will also answer to Soap, Soapie, or Dirty Soap. **

**This is my first FanFic so I have no idea how this will be received but all comments, negative or positive, are welcome. **

**Actually, constructive criticism is welcome more then anything. **

**Feel free to P.M. me with ideas of things to do or O.C.'s as I am always willing to collaborate with others, if anything, it makes writing this a lot more fun. Same goes for any questions or comments that you might have; If I don't get back to you within the day then I will address and answer your question in the bottom A/N of the next chapter.**

* * *

O.C. #1 (my O.C.)

Name: Soap **(his actual name will be revealed later on in the story)**

Sex: Male

Age: 18

Height: 5'7"

Eye Color: Silver-Brown (more silver than brown)

Hair: Short and spiky; Pure White w/ a red and black streak in it

Build: Slight to medium build

Race: Human

Colors: White, Red, Black **(the first four OC's have the same outfit design, but different color schemes; white will go with white, Red with red, ect.)**

Outfit: White v-neck under shirt  
cargo shorts, at the top it starts gray then fades it's way to pure white at the bottom  
Jacket, (no hood) starts at pure black at the top then fades it's way to the same shade of gray at the top of the pants  
cloak, (has hood) knee length, gray, red accents all over the back, curly tribal cross across the back starting on one shoulder going to the other side at the bottom of the cloak, left shoulder to bottom right of cloak,  
light red shoulder armor  
tight, black leather finger-less gloves  
wears a simple cross necklace, two color, silver on the back, black on the front

Aura Color: Red w/ Black and White outline

Semblance: Smoke powers **(Think Delsin Rowe at the beginning of inFAMOUS: Second Son)** includes: fireballs, smoke teleporting, and all heat-related things, can use semblance to fly

*can use his semblance to set his and Sarah's Weapons on fire

Personality/Talents/Interests: talented hacker; a little bit of a motor head, often goes for rides in his car with Sarah; laid back unless seriousness is needed; Playful in his relationship with Sarah but is 100% devoted to it; believes in what is right and just; will put others before himself; Not racist towards faunas; excels in Fighting; Loves the thrill of danger and is not afraid to jump in head first; Talented singer and guitar player and loves to play songs with Sarah and Sam; loves to tinker with his team's weapons (though he leaves the gun modifications to Sam); Loves to listen to stories of the past along with sci-fy, fantasy, and futuristic stories, not to mention telling a few of his own; he has patience, but it will run out if he is pushed too far or if Sarah's, or any of his friend's lives, is being threatened; when it does run out his hair changes from calm pure white to 100% pure black; as he slowly runs out of patience, the black highlight streak in Sarah's hair slowly starts to fade; because of his past, he is somewhat more trusting of fanus than humans right off the bat

Fighting Style: Wild and fast while also accurate and strong with attacks; when using both of his swords in sword mode he tends to use the one in his right backhanded; is deadly when his weapon is in bow staff mode; often joint attacks with Sarah; when one of his weapons is in it's bladed whip mode, he uses it to pull his enemy in or make short to medium range attacks without getting in harms way

Weapon(s): two katanas sheathed across his back under his cloak; both of which hold a guard-less katana; one has a black handle with a white cord wrapped around it and a white blade with red runic accents on it; the other has a white handle with a black cord wrapped around it and a red blade with black runic accents on it;  
the blades can be combined to make a bow staff that can deliver fatal blows; when one of his weapons is in sword mode (it doesn't matter which one) they can change into a sort of bladed whip

katanas can be lit on fire with his semblance  
carries a Desert Eagle that has a 4" bayonet attached to it and fires Ice ammo which he combines with his and/or Sarah's semblance to produce devastating results

**because of the unique way that his semblance and aura were unlocked, he shares a bond with Sarah. This allows them to communicate without speaking and for them to fully share each others' semblance, at the others' discretion, and aura. With that said, Soap is able to withstand a bit more Semblance usage than Sarah.

* * *

O.C. #2

Name: Sarah (Hearts) Kirtsov

Sex: Female

Age: 18 (younger than soap)

Height: 5'5"

Eye color: whitish-pink (white with pink thrown in) when calm, blood red when angry  
*as she get's angrier, the red highlight streak in Soap's hair slowly fades.*

Hair: light blond with a black streak on her right.

Build: slight, smaller than soap, tan complexion, not flat chested like Weiss but not extreme like Yang, somewhere in the middle

Race: Faunas (cat) white on the inside, light pink on the outside

Colors: Pink, White, Red **(this is where the different color schemes come into play; for Sarah, Pink would go where white is on Soap, white would go where red is on Soap, ect. This goes for the first four OC's)**

Outfit: no gloves, no shoulder armor, no gradual change of colors on jacket and pants, adjust colors where needed; other than that refer to Soap

Cloak: (has hood) light pink, 2 white stripes, in line with the eyes, starting at top of hood going all the way down to the bottom spiraling down into runic designs, one black strip going from the top of the hood all the way down to the bottom of the cloak and is in between the two white stripes, with some pink to spare, holes in top of hood for cat ears

*has a simple cross necklace nearly identical to Soap's but has her sigil etched in to the center and it's colors are reversed

Aura Color: Pink with white outline

Semblance: Electricity **(think inFAMOUS 1 &amp; 2\. I don't have a thing for the game, it's just the best way to describe the way it looks)** includes teleporting, electricity bombs, and all electricity-related things, will not die or kill anyone if in water; like Soap, she can also fly by wrapping herself in her semblance

Personality: not shy in anyway shape or form; loves to sing and dance; Loves Soap with all heart and soul, and is 100% devoted to relationship with Soap; is somewhat dominant in relationship with Soap but she would never think to take advantage of that fact; loves stories of the past and tales of heroes, not to mention Soap's own stories regardless if they are true or not; Soap taught Sarah everything she knows about technology; Soap taught Sarah how to sing, play the guitar, and play the piano; is 100% a better singer than Soap and she knows it but would ever brag about it; is always up for playing songs with Soap and Sam; loves to play pranks on her team and her friends but would never dare to try to prank Soap, instead she tries to include him with every prank that she does

Weapon(s): Two metal pipes, each with a different size bore, allowing her to use them in accordance with her semblance to create a sort of gun, the pipe with the larger bore being a shotgun, and the pipe with the smaller bore being a sniper rifle or an assault rifle depending on her situation. And of course they are metal pipes. Do I really need to explain the melee portion of her weapon?

* * *

O.C. #3

Name: Sam (Krest) Krestfield

Sex: Female

Age: 15

Height: 5'2"

Eye Color: royal purple

Hair: red-brown, shoulder length with one lock of it fading to black at the tip

Build: slight although looks are deceiving; a little more developed than Weiss but not Ruby size

Race: Faunas (Hawk) Her wings are white

*can use them to fly

Colors: Green, Black, and Yellow

Outfit: Refer to Soap and Sarah for outfit *change colors where necessary*

*holes in back of jacket to allow for her wings to go through

Cloak: (has hood) Sam's cloak is made out of a special material that allows her to blend into the surrounding area, helping her with her weapons and specialties

Aura Color: Green with a hint of Yellow

Semblance: Wind (can push people back, and help with flying)

Personality: Shyer than Soap and Sarah, but not Drake quiet; is willing to listen to others; after Soap and Sarah taught her to sing and harmonize with them, she likes to sing with them; loves to dance, loves fun; loves to go shopping with Sarah; knows more about cars than Soap does; became the resident guns expert (she leaves the Weapon modification, other than guns, to Soap and Drake, however that doesn't mean she can't try) and is constantly tinkering with and improving Soap's Desert Eagle and Drake's gun attachments; being the stealth expert, she became somewhat obsessed with stealth technology and started making her own stealth technology

Weapon(s): .50 caliber sniper rifle that started off as just a bunch of spare gun parts, is constantly being changed and modified; has a modified MP5K SMG that can load any caliber in existence and fire a dual beta mag (one beta mag holds 100 rounds, this one holds 200) in under 10 seconds.  
For extreme close range, she has an collapsible baton that has an emergency shotgun shell loaded in to the end. **(for the base baton, think of the baton in Watch Dogs. I didn't model it after the Watch Dogs baton, it just so happened that the one that I designed in my head resembled the one in the Watch Dogs.)**

* * *

O.C. #4

Name: Drake Hemington

Sex: Male

Age: 16

Height: 5'10"

Eye Color: black with a hint of dark blue

Hair: brown, short

Build: medium to heavy build

Race: Human

Colors: Blue, White, and Silver

Outfit: refer to Soap and Sarah's outfit  
*change colors wherever necessary

Cloak: (has hood) wove fire dust into his cloak, and formed an emotional bond with it, (not like Ruby in relation with her own cloak) so that when he gets angry, his cloak erupts into flames.

Aura Color: white and silver w/ a shade of blue

Semblance: Drake has two semblances, one: telecommunication (his vocal chords were cut) *story reason for this*  
Two: Ice (everything that Ice powers entail)  
*can create whatever he wants with his semblance. For instance a Ice sword

Personality: Drake doesn't say much and keeps to himself, except when he feels that his opinion may be valuable; after what his past has done to him, he is a little weary of fanus, but willing to trust them if they prove themselves; eventually takes after Soap with his love for music; Soap eventually get's him to pick up the hobby of weapon modification; enjoy's playing chess and is always looking for a challenging opponent which he found in the form of Bucky who quickly became a good friend to Drake; Also enjoys trying out Bucky's cooking "experiments" and is usually seen moving quickly towards the kitchen anytime he knows that Bucky is cooking.

Weapon(s): Half a prosthetic left arm, and a near full prosthetic right arm, both of which were made with Drake's semblance in mind, all types of dust woven into the limbs; Other than the fact that he can detach and select different attachments such as guns and so forth, though he generally uses them as melee weapons; Attachments are constantly being made for him by Sam. **(more details on these in the story)**

* * *

**(A/N the following is a character sheet from one of my friends at work, hence the slightly different format)**

Name: Andeus "Bucky" McGillicudy

Sex: Male

Age: 21 **(follows Soap as a leader)**

Race: Human

Height: 6'0"

Eyes: Blue

Build: Slightly heavier than average, but no bodybuilder or tank. (Literally just think of how your average guy looks.)

Hair: Dark brown with a glint of red

Outfit: Black wifebeater, slightly worn baggy jeans, silver chain with a cross engraved with three dots forming a delta, white sneakers.

Aura Color: Orange fading to gold

Semblance: Can control the air around him (approximately an effective 10 foot radius, with it getting weaker as it gets farther from him.) Mostly used for whirlwind type attacks along with being used for a slight speed boost.

Weapon(s): A chainsaw blade with a shotgun attached to the back. Fitted to the length of his right lower arm. Hand holds the chainsaw blade with a finger near the trigger, elbow is where the short shotgun barrel is.  
*Chain-blade can be used against other metallic objects to cause sparks  
*Left hand weapon is a gold-studded Caestus, used to get in light attacks which will most likely keep the opponent on guard, and not retaliating. He chose gold, simply because it's shiny.

Fighting Style: Prefers to rush his enemies, giving them little time to prepare and little chance for a breather. Unrelenting when attacking. Leaves very little room for counterattacks unless fighting multiple opponents. Prefers close-range/melee combat. Does not enjoy killing, and would rather incapacitate his opponents than mortally wound them.  
*prefers to never be caught in the same place on the battlefield  
*if enraged, he is completely unaware of his surroundings (becoming somewhat dangerous to allies) and will attack until either the opponent is reduced to nothingness, or incapacitated by a teammate.  
*prefers to leave the fighting to Soap, Sarah, Sam, and Drake; but will fight if need be.

Personality: Is as talkative as the company he keeps. Light-hearted and level-headed. Doesn't hold anything against anyone unless given a reason to. Likes to make light of any situation, but knows when to crack down and be serious. A little on the sensitive side, he is more in tune with emotions than others (able to tell if something is wrong, immediately when arriving in a room). Always had an interest in how things worked. Enjoys watching Soap and Sam tinker with melee weapons and guns respectively, but prefers to leave it to them. Tends to throw in suggestions even when they're unwarranted. Learns from mistakes rather quickly. Enjoys listening to Soap, Sarah, and Sarah play music, can sing fairly well after Soap showed him how. Conversationalist. Enjoys chess in his downtime (likes to play with Drake who is an equal match). Tries his best to treat everyone equally but typically gives someone he's crushing on a little extra care and attention. Absolutely LOVES to cook (and eat), and loves to experiment with new recipes (with Drake being the first in line to try them). Rarely seen angry, but can be pushed to the breaking point. Gets along great with Drake, despite not knowing much of his history.

* * *

Back stories will be the first couple of chapters, but will highly intertwine into each other.

* * *

**A/N: Well that's all I have for now. The first little bit of back story should be going up tomorrow. **

**With that said, I'm SoapiestAuto780, and I'll catch you guys next time.**

**Peace! **


	2. Ch 1: In the end,

**A/N: OK, so maybe I did lie in say that this wouldn't be up till tomorrow, but if am able to type this all out before midnight...**

**Sarah: Soap! *puts arms around shoulders and whispers in his ear* Get some sleep, please?**

**Soap: Lemme type up this chapter and then sure.**

**Sarah: Soap!~**

**Soap: *sigh* I miss the old days. **

* * *

Chapter 1: In the end,

* * *

_By the time that you find this, we will already be long gone._

_We promised that we would follow you till the end of time and, in a way, we did. I know that you wish it was you instead of us, but what's done is done; we wouldn't have it any other way. Please do not blame yourself for our own actions; we knew it was a suicide mission to begin with, but to be honest, me and my team didn't plan on coming back. We gave it our all; I know that's all you have ever asked of us._

_Since the beginning - you and Sarah and Sam and Drake and Bucky - all of you, taught us that everybody deserves a second chance, no matter how badly they had messed up. Although you may have told us this with words; you showed us how with your actions. Even after some of us thought that we had sealed our fates, you gave us a second chance. By doing so, you taught us what it truly meant to start over._

_I know that Sam, Drake, and all the others that fought and bled with us, would agree when we say: had you never found us, we would not have lived our lives the way we did._

_We have all sworn to protect those who cannot do so themselves; regardless of whether or not they deserve it. We know that you will continue to watch over them after we are gone until your own time is called. _

_You and your team may have started out as my teams' personal instructors; but in the end, you were all the best of friends to us. No. You were more than that. Much, much more. You were family. All of you were. Like any family, we didn't always get along nor did we always like each other. In fact, when we first met you, some of us even hated you. Hated you to the point that we wished you dead, but as you began to teach us skills that we never thought were possible; we grew closer. We all did. We became a family; albeit a strange one, but a family nonetheless._

_You sacrificed so much for us, but now it's our turn to repay you for all that you have done for us in the only way that we truly can in this crazy and fucked up war. _

_We have all fought long and hard, and now that we have played our parts, my sister and I will finally be able to see our mothers' again. For that I am happy._

_Just as my team and I considered the you family; I know that you considered us the same. _

_As family, and as friends, we ask of you one thing. _

_We ask that you keep the memories that we made - the good and the bad - from fading into oblivion._

_While I am sure that our mission did what we set out to do; I cannot but fear that our sacrifices were made in vain; please, make certain that they weren't._

_Oh and Soap. I know that you promised my mother that you would protect me from the darkness - and by the time that you have found this, you will no doubt thought of yourself having failed that - but when I see my mom shortly, not too long from now; I'll be sure to tell her that you have made good on your promise._

_One last thing Soap:_

_ Please. Even in our deaths, be happy. _

_For if not for me, then for Sarah._

_And thank you; __For everything._

_One day, some day, I will welcome you to your place among the stars where we shall shine down among the scorched earth and provide hope for the many generations to come; __I promise._

_Until we meet again; in the next life._

_I'll be waiting._

_-R_

* * *

I reread the message that I had found on her scroll after it ended.

It had taken nearly everything from us, the war. After it all was said and done, it left us only with stories, and memories, of the people that we had called our friends. No, they were more than people that we just called our friends; they were our family, a family that I loved so very, very much.

The war had left most of the planet we call home, Remnant, in ruins; three out of the four kingdoms were still in flames. One of them, Vale, still burned behind me. If I turned around, I would probably be able to see the flames, that were licking the sky, being pushed by the wind; that same wind carried the smell of smoke, smoke not my own, across the wind-scarred land around me. Put simply, most of my world was on fire, and it would probably burn for years after I left the living.

I could still remember, what was almost, mankind's' last stand. The war had proved to be too much for the majority of the trained Huntsman and Huntresses' of the world. Instead, it was up to myself; a bounty hunter; my, who was at the time, girlfriend/fiancée; an ex-mercenary; and the family that we had created, to make the final push to win the war; but at the cost of all of their lives, save for three.

Memories of my friends brought me to my knees. _'__They gave up their lives for us.' _I thought to myself silently. _'Our friends, our family - every last one of them - so willingly gave their lives for us. It's something that still astonishes me to this day.'_

In front and off to the left of me was a piece of armored hull of, what once was, my over sized Bullhead. The giant piece of Dust-infused steel was propped up against a boulder with it's belly facing towards me. Inscribed, in elegant calligraphy, on the underside of the green/gray-ish colored metal was the names of each platoon that had been felled to the war. Underneath each platoon name was the Squad and Team names that made them up. Underneath that, each Squad was broken down further into the individual soldiers that made them the remarkable squads that they were. Inscribed vertically, downwards, underneath each letter that made up the Team names, was the name that that particular letter belonged to.

Next to the giant piece of metal, were rows upon rows of tombstones; each bearing the name of the individual that lay beneath. I knew each one of them as a friend; as a piece of our family. I quietly began to recall the faces that belonged to each of the names that I had engraved into each headstone. Among them were people that I had known for years before the war, and others that I had only known for a few months; yet each of them I loved. Drake, Sam, Bucky, Morgoth, Freezie, Jack; All of them were people that I considered my family, and each of them thought of me as a father. They were people that, without me, would have been dead long before the war even started.

While I silently recalled the qualities of those that had gone before me, I heard the quiet, yet familiar, footfall of someone approaching me from behind. When her footsteps came to a distance of 2 feet away, they stopped.

Without turning around; I spoke, breaking the silence around me with my deep, resonating voice. "Took you long enough."

Still not facing her, I heard her shift positions to one of, what I could only guess to be, disbelief. After a second of waiting, she spoke, "I still don't know how you manage hear me, you not being a faunas." The voice was one that I had become very well acquainted with over the years. She was my partner, and my wife, after all.

After what felt to me to be a suitable length of time, I finally turned around to face the voice. When I did, I was face to face with the person that I vowed to love and trust 'till death do us part'. What I saw wasn't the young teenage girl that I fell for all those many years ago. The face I was currently staring eye to eye with no longer held the youth I once saw; it no longer had the lightly tanned complexion that it once had, nor was it still wrinkle-free, but then again, neither was mine. In the time since I had met her, the one well defined scar that had stretched from above her left check to just below her jawline had all but been replaced with the multitude of other scars that now covered her face. Covered with scars, her face, to me, still held an unnatural beauty about it.

Just then a thought occurred to me. _"W__hy are we still standing in front of our friends graves?" _I silently thought to myself.

A voice inside my head reminded me that one of the people that I shared some of my thoughts with, was standing right in front of me.

_"Because you miss them," _the feminine voice said inside my head,_ "and believe me. I miss Drake, Sam, and the rest of them just as much as you do."_

_"That's the thing though; it's not just that I miss them, and believe me I do, but it's the fact that they died when we might have found another way and avoided their deaths."_ I quietly responded back.

_"I know, but stop blaming yourself. It wasn't your fault. It was their decision to go, and nothing that you could have said would have change their minds."_ Her voice said in my head, as she pulled down her hood.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as a tumbleweed rolled past, making a light scraping sound as it did. The sound was so faint that I could barely hear it myself with my human ears, but I knew that the faunas in front of me could.

I watched the top of my wife's head as the noise disappeared completely for me, for I knew very well that she could still hear it. I watched as the feline set of her ears twitched, continuing to track the weed as it gained distance from us until it was too far for even her to hear it.

As I watched her, I thought back to the time when I had first seen those beautiful cat ears.

As I did, I could feel myself begin to be pulled into another flashback, the scenery around me growing dim in my mind; but was stopped by a voice and a hand that grabbed my shoulder.

"Save the remembering for later tonight; you're putting John to bed and he's going to want to hear a story." The ex-mercenary in front of me said as she turned around and began walking in the direction she had approached me from. After a few steps, she stopped in her tracks and turned back around to face me, "Oh, by the way, he found the scroll with the pictures of our friends on it. With him being the curious 9 year old that he is, he's going to ask about them. Honestly though, I say that it's about time that he knows our story; the full story."

I knew that I had no choice but to say yes and started to open my mouth to speak, but I stopped halfway; instead, I walked over to her and kissed her passionately.

When we pulled away from the kiss, I answered simply, "I know."

I grabbed her hand and pulled her into a hug and another kiss. This time, we only stopped when we had to breath. "I love you Sarah." I said, looking into her eyes.

"I love you too Soap." Sarah responded, pulling me into another hug. A few minutes passed before we broke our embrace.

"You ready to go? It's getting dark and we're going to have to put John to bed soon." I asked her.

Sarah said nothing, giving me a quick nod instead.

When I saw this, I activated my semblance and teleported ourselves home.

Within a second, we were back in the sanctuary of the old church that we called our home.

* * *

The sanctuary of the old church held many memories; memories that were both happy and sad. Of the happy variety, were memories of a lost art coming to light and the joy that it had brought to me, Sarah, and our friends. Like a distant and faint whisper, I could still hear the joyous voices that had once belonged to our friends and the songs that they sang. The phantom sound echoed in my mind and effectively brought a faint smile to my lips and a tear to my eyes.

Of the bad, I could clearly remember the call that had brought us, my friends and I, into the war. I recall hearing the distinct sound of fear and desperation in the Generals' voices that had contacted me. Having put up what fight they could, the Generals of Remnant's four kingdoms had exhausted the last of their viable options and called upon the help of myself and my friends.

I remember the White Fang declaring peace with their sworn enemies to push back the darkness and aid in whatever way they could to try and help win the war.

I remember how the leaders of five very different armies from five very different origin, each gave me control of their armies; each one of them hopping that I would be able to do what they could not and bring a swift and painless close to the war.

All of the memories that the room contained were ones that neither me, Sarah, nor anyone else that survived, wanted to relive anytime soon, so we quickly exited and made our way to John's room.

John was something of a miracle. Being of both human and faunas origin, many didn't think that he would survive beyond 6 months. Yet, he was with us today at a ripe young age of 9 years old. Anybody that looked at him would plainly be able to see that he was our child. A hostile world John had the misfortune of being brought up in, you know, with a war going on and all; and yet, Sarah, myself, and anyone else that had a chance to meet him, including _her_, managed to kept the fact that there was a war at all from him.

Something that we were very grateful for.

It wasn't until two years after that suicide mission, led by _her team_, did we even think of telling John small details about the war; even then, we still with held information from him.

At least till today.

* * *

Hand in hand, Sarah and I rounded the corner and caught a glimpse of John's black tail disappearing through the door to his room. I knew better than to be concerned though.

Upon entering, I headed to the corner of the room and grabbed two chairs and dragged them over to the side of John's bed. I took my place in one and Sarah took her place right beside me.

It wasn't until after I sat down did I see the scroll that John had in his hands. "What you got there John?" I asked, knowing fully well the answer.

"I don't know. I found on the counter upstairs in the sound booth when I was trying to hook mine up to the sound system." He replied in his comparatively high, 9 year old voice.

I motioned for him to let me see it. He did. Immediately after handing me the scroll, he asked, "Where's Auntie?"

While I observed the scroll, Sarah answered for me, "Your Auntie is out getting some things for us and she won't be back until later."

After observing the scroll and the picture that it displayed, I quietly pushed away the memories and put the scroll on the nightstand next to John's bed. With a heavy sigh, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a length of chain. A necklace. One that would forever comfort, and haunt, me. On it was a collection of crosses, and engraved elegantly in the center of each cross was the symbol of the individual who had previously worn it. Individuals that Sarah and I regarded as extraordinary, individuals that we were proud to have called family.

John didn't have to say a word; one look at his face as he eyed the necklaces told me the whole story. So, I asked him a single question; one that I already knew the answer to, but asked anyways. "John, do you know who those people are and who these necklaces used to belong to?"

Without so much as a word, John shook his head no in response.

"To put it simply, they are people that have long since passed to the great beyond. But they were so much more than that. They were our friends. No, they were family. Family that gave up their lives so that we would be able to continue our own." I paused and sighed, "But I'm getting ahead of myself. In order to tell any story right; you have to start from the beginning."

Before I continued, I quickly looked at Sarah who was looking at me. Both of us realized that telling our story would be more than just reiterating events that had happened in our lives; It would mean reliving the best and worst moments of our lives. But John had a right to know the stories of the people that allowed us to be alive today. People that would have done anything for us; people no, family, that promised to follow me and Sarah to the ends of Remnant and back. And in a ironic kind of way, they did.

As I was about to start, I heard the words that Sam had said, in toast, the night before their war began, echo in my mind:

_'Soap, _Thank you. Thank you f_or everything that have done for us. I am certain now, that if it wasn't for you rescuing me off the streets all those many years ago, I would be dead right now. I sure that is also true for many others here with us tonight. _

_I know I speak for all when I say we will follow you to the end, no matter the consequences. It was because of you that many of us still live and fight today. It's because of you that we believe that everybody deserves a second chance, because you gave us all a second chance._

__The darkness is coming and with it, war. So, in the dark we shall live and fight to ensure that those in the light don't have to. We fight so that true peace __may one day be obtainable. A peace whose definition you taught us, for it is a ____peace that becomes obtainable with the unity of a people. People who accept those around them for who they are; regardless of their race or what they have done in their past. A peace that I would like to think might one day be a reality.____

__Tomorrow we fight, and for some, it will be their last time doing so. But tonight, we drink; We drink to celebrate and to thank the man that gave us the true meaning of peace that we fight for.__

__We drink to Soap.'__

* * *

I sighed as I silently pushed away the memory. I decided to start our story with something that I had once said to a friend:

"There are parts of our memory that we love to remember; then there are the parts that we can't stand to re-live. The pieces of our past that we forbid ourselves to remember are things that do not define who or what we are; and yet they are what define how we go about the rest of our lives. If we are able to live through them and tell the tale - from the pain to the joy and everything in between - they only prove to make us stronger and able to last longer."

With these words I began our story.

With those words began a war.

* * *

**A/N: I had a lot of fun writing the visuals for that chapter, not to mention, 3 mins till midnight! I told you I could do it.**

**Sarah: Yeah you did, but now you have to write the actual story.**

**Soap: *groans* Time to go type some more.**

* * *

******Just a heads up, t****he actual story will start on what will be titled as "Ch 5: whom we love". So if you don't want to read back story, just skip to that chapter.**********

**Edit: 10-16-2014; Pre-Ch. 10: I went back and re-wrote the beginning to match the rest of the story thus far; also fixed a few spelling mistakes, grammar errors, and added a few extra details that will be relevant later in the story.**

**11-3-2014; Pre-Ch. 13: I fixed a few grammatical errors in scenes 2 and 3. Added some details in scene 3 about something that will be important later on in the story. Added a few more lines of speech in scene 4 and** removed a few others to allow for a little bit more freedom later on regarding the plot**. Also f****ixed grammar errors and added missing words in scene 1.**

**Edit: 3-2-2015; Changed the last word in scene two paragraph two. For references, the word that I changed was "two" and I changed it to "three".**

**Edit: 3-16-2015; Did a major re-work of the chapter, changing from third person to first person, and adding quite a few more details in the process. Expect the next (story) chapter to be getting the same treatment within the week.**


	3. Ch 2: the only thing

****A/N: Just a heads up for you guys, the actual story will start on what will be titled as "Ch 5: whom we love". So if you are one of those people that don't like to read back story, just skip to that chapter.****

****Alright, now that that's out of the way, for those of you how are actually going to read the back story, this is probably one of the harder things for me to write of this story. Not because of how dark it is, and believe me it get's dark when it comes to the back stories of my O.C.'s, but because I have a really hard time adding dialog to something that already has a plot of sorts. And I had all of them generally outlined on paper for a couple of weeks now.****

****And just a little heads up for this and the next two chapters: for the most part they're going to be rather short because when I originally wrote these ideas down, I did so in my "Let's Play, I am currently recording for You Tube, voice," however, I constantly revise myself when I type/write, so we'll see how this turns out. I'll see you guys at the bottom of the chapter!****

****Edit: 3-17-2015; Currently going through the process of doing a major re-work of what has already been posted to, one, re-familiarize myself with the story, two, switch all third person sections to first person, and three, just make it a little better. Not that it was bad or anything; but it could have been done better, which is what I am attempting to do.****

* * *

Chapter 2 (back story part 1): the only thing

* * *

**(this chapter is going to be a little confusing and will swap viewpoints from Soap to Sarah to Soap and so on, but will stay in chronological order. *Also heads up, this is going to be a rather dark chapter. So heads up.*)**

_"There are parts of our memory that we love to remember; then there are the parts that we can't stand to re-live. The pieces of our past that we forbid ourselves to remember are things that do not define who or what we are; and yet they are what define how we go about the rest of our lives. If we are able to live through them and tell the tale - from the pain to the joy and everything in between - they only prove to make us stronger and able to last longer._

_"I had to learn this fact firsthand at a very young age; but because of it, I became the man I am today. I said that phrase once as advice to a friend, though I'm not sure she even remembers it; but once again, I am getting ahead of myself. _

_"My story, starts rather painfully; thankfully though, somewhere on my journey from then to now, the pain that used to inhabit these memories has all but gone. But alas, I digress for I have delayed it long enough. Let us begin..._

* * *

**~Soap (age 5)**

Let me start by saying that I don't know if I ever had a truly "normal" childhood before the first day of my conscious life; all I know is that I woke up to a fucked up world.

The first thing I remember is being held down by a thug and being forced to watch, who I now know to be, my friends and family get brutally executed by either getting their necks slit with a dull razor blade, or, if they were lucky, being shot in the head and being allowed to die a painless and instant death.

At the time, if you were an associate, or maybe even a friend, of one of the thugs and asked what they were doing, they would have probably replied with "Liberating the world of it's last safe haven for the monsters."

By their own definition, the thugs were being very kind "this time" by leaving me for last. They had done this before and survived by destroying entire villages and looting the remains once they were done. For what reason, at the time; I didn't know nor cared.

As I watched my family and friends got murdered, and my home burned down around me; I could feel a fire spark deep within me. It was a fire that burned of hate, rage, and a want of revenge for the family that I barely knew.

Though I was only five at the time, I desperately searched for a way to avenge my family.

I found my answer in the form of my sharp, five year old teeth, and the hot, sweaty, knife-wielding hands that were keeping me held down.

Once the other thugs finished burning down the rest of the village that I had called home and began to work through the ruins; the thug that was holding me went to end me. I saw this and took it as my opportunity.

When the thug's hand got close enough, I buried my teeth into his hand. In turn, this caused the thug to drop his knife in pain and swear loudly under his liquor filled breath as grabbed his now throbbing hand.

When I saw the knife leave my captor's hand, I grabbed it and, without a second thought, sliced his throat. After all the major arteries in the man's neck were thoroughly severed; I slowly and quietly lowered the corpse to the ground and effectively disappeared from sight.

For the first time in my life, I snapped.

I was so full and overflowing with hate and the darkness that came from it, that it ended up having an otherwise permanent effect on my hair. The change: anytime I got angry, my pure white hair turned 100% black.

After 15 minutes of emotionless slaughter; my once filth-free home was, once again, free of filth. Or at least as filth-free as I was capable of making it.

Once it was all said and done, and my hair had returned to it original, pure white state; I realized what I had done. For who knows how long, I sat in the blackened snow that now took the place of my home and grieved over the loss of my family.

After 10 solid minutes of crying, I decided that I was tired of being sad and crying; so, I stopped.

* * *

_"Looking back on my decisions then, I realize that while I thought that I had a somewhat stable mind; I really didn't. In fact, I might my mental stability for actions that I committed later on. And yet, it's probably that same mental instability that caused my mind to mature to that of a 15 year old. But once again, I'm getting ahead of myself..."_

* * *

After I calmed myself down to the best of my abilities, I looked around and started to formulate a plan.

Eventually, after I finished mentally outlining and detailing what I was to do, I acted on that plan.

On the way to my objective, I looted the bodies of everyone I passed; specifically for their scrolls.

Before long I had a decent stash of scrolls; in fact, I probably had more than enough for what I intended to do.

Since people put their entire lives onto their scrolls - social life, the company they worked for, where they lived, _and_ bank account information - I was able to gain access to the accounts attached to each one with, to my delight, incredible ease. As it turned out, I had a knack for technology; something I would appreciate greatly later on in life.

Once I was through, I gathered the bodies of my family and friends into the only building left standing in village.

For whatever reason this building, situated at the center of the village, was left completely intact; however, the massive amount of blood dripping from the front doors told me that the building's occupants weren't so lucky.

Silently, I cringed and shuddered at the thought of what probably happened to them.

I silently shed a tear before pushing the thought away and getting to work.

* * *

Finished pulling the last body into the building, I got a good look at my father and wondered if I would ever look like him.

I let the thoughts linger in my head for a moment or two longer before I pushed them away.

As I was about to leave the center building, as I noticed something around my father's neck.

A necklace.

I carefully took it off the body and examined it.

It was a simple necklace, a cross in nature being black on the front and silver on the back. As I continued to examine it, I faintly recalled hearing stories about it.

At one point in time, it was supposed to have belonged to a hero. It wasn't a story I knew well, however, I wanted something to be able to remember my family by; so without a second thought, I took it.

After I left the building, I made my way to a pile of rubble that was still burning nearby. Being careful not to burn myself, I made my way back to the center building and placed the piece of burning debris inside.

Once I was, once again, back outside; I turned to the now burning building and said goodbye to my family.

I stood there, watching as the building quickly gave way to flames. After I was satisfied that the fire wouldn't go out, I finally turned to leave. Before I left, I checked I own scroll's bank account. To be honest, those thugs hardly had anything on them, but it would be enough for me to be able to buy my own place to live. After that, I was either going to have to find a job or learn how to get into more lucrative bank accounts.

The decision, however, was made for me as nobody was going to be willing to hire a five year old.

I stopped at the entrance to the village and looked around one last time. Taking in the once beautiful, now destroyed, village.

With nothing left for me to do, I let out a heavy sigh, turned around, and started down the only road out and kept walking.

After a few hours of walking, I eventually came to a fork in the road. At the fork was a sign that stated that the nearest city, Vale, was a three day hike away.

Letting out one last sigh, I started down the road towards Vale.

* * *

To be completely honest, I most likely would have died on that three day walk to Vale, but thanks to a kind Samaritan by the name of Bucky, I was able make it to Vale fully alive and well.

Still slightly traumatized from recent events, I retold the events that I had witnessed to Bucky to the best of my abilities.

After hearing my story, he said that he would help out however he could.

Once we were in the city, Bucky took me to a place that he thought I might be able to buy: An old, abandoned church just half an hour outside of Vale city limits.

Once we had arrived and purchased the property, I said goodbye to Bucky.

Just as I was about to turn to leave, Bucky called to me from the window of his cab, "Hey buddy!"

When I turned around, he tossed me a stack of Lien cards.

For a second, I just stared at the cards, confused. Before I could even think of questions to ask, Bucky was already answering them.

"That's a couple thousand Lien. That should be enough to get you on your feet. I got to go." He said, rolling up the cab's window.

"Wait!" I called out.

He stopped and waited, "Yeah?"

"How can I pay you back for your kindness?" I asked.

He stared up at the sky, seemingly thinking, before he answered.

"Tell you what, you can pay me back after you become Remnant's youngest millionaire." He said as he told the driver to start driving.

"See ya next time!" He called out as the taxi drove away.

* * *

Standing at the front doors of the old church, I could see that the building had been upgraded to newer technology regarding the electronics and security system.

To be honest, I really didn't like the scroll unlock system. The reason: if I, a five year old, could get into multiple bank accounts easily, then someone else could as well.

This in mind, I changed the security system to a sort of necklace scanner that would only unlock if the right necklace was scanned.

The right necklace being my father's necklace hanging around my neck.

After I finished up with that, I went inside to explore my new home.

* * *

**~Sarah (age 5) (third person)**

Sarah first became conscious of herself at the age of 5. She awoke at an orphanage just over an hours' drive outside the city limit of Vale.

The first thing she noticed when she awoke was that she had an unlocked aura.

**(In this AU, in order to have an unlocked aura, someone had to either unlock your aura for you, or you unlocked it yourself by other more physical and archaic methods)**

Not really understanding, or caring, why she had an unlocked aura she began to train her body mentally and physically.

She did so by managing to trick the other kids in the orphanage into playing a "game" with her in the orphanage basement, away from the prying eyes of their caretakers.

**(I know it sounds weird, but this was the best way to describe the "game" without it sounding very sexual)**

Through the competitive nature of both herself and the other kids, her "game" allowed her to make a few friends, human and faunus alike, and learn how to fight.

* * *

**~Soap (age 6)**

Having running out of the money that I scavenged off the thugs; I began teaching myself more advanced techniques for hacking. Which, still to my surprise, I mastered rather quickly.

With this skill handy, at the age of five and a half years old I became Remnant's youngest millionaire.

Now that I was a millionaire, I would be able to pay Bucky back next time I saw him just like I said I would. I just hopped I would see him soon.

Since money was no longer an issue, I started taking an interest in other things. Starting with the much needed renovation of my new home that I had dubbed "the church" for obvious reasons.

**(this was not for religious reasons, but rather that I could not think of a better name, and because the church that I go to, if this were real, would have plenty of room for the shenanigans that I have planned)**

* * *

As I was knocking down the connecting walls between four of the rooms – I planned to turn the area into a state-of-the-art training room – I accidentally knocked into one of the external walls.

Most people would have thought this as a bad thing, however, in my case, this was a good thing.

Knocking into the wall revealed a room that had been priorly unknown to me. At the time though, I wasn't concerned that it was a room that I hadn't explored yet; I was concerned about the damage that I could have possibly done to the structural integrity of the building.

After surveying the damage and repairing what little was done, I found that the secret room held a good number of strangely shaped objects. A majority of them sported a number of metal strings of varying thickness.

At the time, I had no clue that what I had found would, in fact, be a great discovery.

After investigating, I found that my mystery room held some of the last surviving relics of a culture that had long since been forgotten.

What I had found was something called music and musical instruments.

* * *

After I finished with the renovations to my home, I took to learning how to play music; in particular the guitar, which I beautifully mastered quickly.

Shortly after, I moved on to learning the skills of reading written music, how to sing, and how to write my own music.

Not long after, I was able to locate an archive not far from the church that withheld every piece of music ever put to paper.

Playing and writing music did eventually become boring for me so on my seventh birthday, I decided that I would become the world's youngest Bounty Hunter.

* * *

**~Sarah (age 10)**

From her "game" – which in all honesty was just an excuse to fight each other – Sarah was able to form, or at least the illusion of, unbreakable friendships with a few other kids in the orphanage.

Among her closest friends were her roommate, a faunus girl Sarah's age named Carrie, and her crush, a human boy a year older than her named Geoff.

Sarah didn't know if she had an actual family, but at the time she didn't care because she was happy.

At least until the day her world got flipped upside-down.

* * *

The day started off average enough with Sarah waking up in the same place that she fell asleep, weapons clutched in her hands.

Over the course of her stay at the orphanage, some of her friends had been known to prank her while she was sleeping, thus she got into the habit of being a light sleeper and sleeping armed.

Now awake, she looked around the room to find her roommate Carrie was nowhere to be seen.

'That's odd. Doesn't Carrie usually wake up after me?' She thought to herself.

She wasn't too worried about it though. She dismissed the absence of roommate as her trying to persuade the caretakers into giving Carrie Sarah's share of bacon.

'I hope she knows that I already told them about her prior attempts.' She thought.

Seeing no reason to delay her food from reaching her stomach; she got out of bed, got dressed, grabbed her scroll, and headed downstairs.

Upon exiting her room on the third floor, she found the absence of the smell of bacon rising up to greet her was slightly worrying; but she blew it off as nothing.

'Maybe Carrie actually succeeded in convincing the caretakers into giving her my bacon. If she did, I'll have to congratulate her later; that's not an easy task.' Sarah thought to herself.

After she neared the second floor landing, her faunus sense of smell picked up the overwhelming aroma of blood.

THIS worried her.

She quickened her pace, flew down the remaining flight of stairs, and rounded the corner towards the kitchen.

When she turned the corner, she was greeted with a sight that was befitting of what she was smelling.

She saw the mutilated corpses of the caretakers slumped against the kitchen wall in a bloody mess.

Seeing this she started to panic.

Fearing the worst, she brandished her weapons and searched the house for her friends. Much to her distaste, she only found more corpses; none of which were her friends.

After closing the eyelids on the 20th corpse, she stood up and punched the wall behind her infrustration. "Where the hell are my friends?" She said angularly to no one in particular.

After a second, silence settled around her and out of the silence came a scream of bloody murder from outside.

Being a faunus, Sarah heard the scream tenfold the intensity a normal human which caused her to clutch her head in discomfort, disorienting her.

After Sarah recovered her bearings, she rushed over to the nearest window to see if she could find out who screamed.

When she looked out the window, she regretted it immediately. She quickly turned away from the window as her stomach turned itself inside out.

Once her stomach had nothing left for it to eject, she looked through the window again.

At first, all she saw was bunch of soldier's standing behind a female child. She was about Sarah's height, had brunette, shoulder length hair, and white lioness ears sticking out of the top of her head. The rest of her body was obscured by the soldiers surrounding her.

Further observation revealed that there was the symbol of the new White Fang painted onto all of the soldier's uniforms.

Sarah watched as a human boy was dragged by two soldiers up to the girl with the lioness ears.

The girl turned around and looked at the boy before her.

From this angle, Sarah could plainly see the White Fang uniform that the girl was wearing. She could also see the ornate Grimm mask she was wearing.

While the soldiers that surrounded the girl were wearing plain white Grimm masks, including who Sarah assumed to be the original leader of the group, the girl's mask was decorated on the left side with red swirls and dotted with black accents. From where she was looking, it appeared that the the right side of her mask was completely white.

Unlike the foot soldiers surrounding her, the girl's mask was a full face mask.

Sarah shifted her focus back to what was happening. The girl with the lion ears was talking to the boy in front of her and it looked like the boy wasn't responding. He just sat there, staring at the ground in front of him.

Sarah watched as the lion faunus reached down and pulled the boy's face up to look at her.

Sarah covered her mouth as she gasped. The boy that the girl was holding, it was Geoff.

His face was barely recognizable as the entire right side of his face was caved in and caked with dried blood.

Just then, the girl motioned to the two soldiers that were holding him.

The soldier on Geoff's right nodded his head, raised his rifle to Geoff's head, and squeezed the trigger.

The rifle released a single bullet, killing Geoff instantly and effectively splattering his gray matter all over the faunus girl. The girl just stood there smiling.

Sarah screamed from the other side of the window as her crush was shot and killed.

She watched as more kids were brought before the lion faunus and executed. All the while Sarah was unable to do anything, frozen in , the girl ran out of humans to kill, so she switched to faunus; particularly Sarah's faunus friends.

Sarah desperately wanted to scream out to her friends and tell them to run for their lives, but no matter what she did she couldn't get her voice to work.

She watched as the lion faunus offered a hand to everybody that was brought before her, presumably offering them a place among the White Fang's ranks. Each and every one of Sarah's friends refused the offer.

It was hopeful to Sarah to see her friends refuse the offer; however this didn't phase the lion faunus.

She just motioned for her men to bind those that refused and place them on the ground behind her.

Soon, the young leader was out of faunus to convince to join. Sarah, for a moment, thought that the lion faunus was going to let her friends go; what actually happened made her blood boil.

The lion faunus turned to face the bound faunus behind her. When she did, Sarah could very clearly see that on the right side of the girl's mask was a handwritten name.

It was a name and handwriting that Sarah knew very, very well. She had slept next to the person whose handwriting and name belonged to for the last five years.

Carrie.

When she turned around, she spoke a command that was inaudible to Sarah through the thick glass window that she had been looking through; though she didn't have to wait long to figure out it's meaning.

The soldiers surrounding the young leader each pulled out a Burn Dust container and proceeded to dump it's contents on the pile of faunus before her.

The lion faunus got down on a knee and slid off her mask, confirming Sarah's fears.

It was definitely Carrie.

Her blood boiling, Sarah activated her semblance and teleported to the second story balcony behind cover where she could hear what Carrie was saying without being seen.

"...know what they do to traitors in the White Fang?" Sarah heard Carrie's voice ask.

A bunch of muffled screams could be heard in response.

Carrie laughed, "I'll make it simple for you to find an answer."

Sarah heard the indistinguishable sound of a lighter being struck and tossed on the ground. Seconds later, the muffled screams of agony could be heard from underneath the sound of a raging inferno.

Deep inside her, Sarah felt an emotion that she usually kept in check, start to surface.

Anger.

Anger that was fed by her love for her friends.

In any other circumstance, she might have fought the emotion back into submission. This time though, she let the emotion pour into her aura unchecked.

She couldn't deny that she felt angry, but more than anything she felt betrayed. Betrayed by a friend that she had loved.

No longer willing to stand and watch, Sarah activated her semblance and teleported herself straight into the center of the White Fang troops and stared directly at the ground letting her anger build.

* * *

The nearest solder, unaware of what was she was doing, stared at the little girl that appeared out of seemingly nowhere directly in the center of their group.

Sarah, now directly in the center of danger, let the rage and anger consume her as the solder cautiously approached her with his rifle drawn, observing her every move which she made none.

By the time the solder reached her, the only thing that Sarah could see was red.

The hate and anger was too much for her 10 year old body and aura to handle, so the extra energy continued to build until it could be released.

The White Fang soldier that was approaching Sarah was genuinely concerned about the young faunus that appeared out of nowhere and staring at the ground, shaking, and with clenched fists.

When the soldier taped Sarah's shoulder, every emotion that had been bottled inside of her flowed into his body causing him inconceivable pain and agony.

This transfer of energy had such a drastic effect on Sarah that it caused her normally blue eyes to be permanently colored white and pink and the added effect of her eyes turning blood red when she gets angry.

But this was all happened to Sarah internally; externally, the area around the WF solder exploded into a ball of electricity turning him to ash.

Moments after, Sarah walked out of the crater unharmed with her weapons in hand.

* * *

Her weapons were two metal pipes, each 4 feet in length and a grip on one end. Such a simple weapon lets her use her semblance in combination with the pipes to make a jury-rigged sort of shotgun and/or a riffle, depending on which pipe she chooses.

One of the pipes has a larger bore than the other allowing it to be used as a shotgun where as the pipe with the smaller bore can be used as a sniper or an assault riffle.

* * *

As the White Fang members looked on in awe, Sarah's eyes turned blood red. The solders stood there with their weapons leveled at Sarah until Carrie finally noticed Sarah and the damage she caused.

Carrie, who was blissfully unaware that Sarah saw everything that she had done, started to walk towards her in a futile attempt to try and calm her down.

Sarah could be reasonable if she tried; however, after seeing her friends get executed and burned alive, all she wanted was for the people responsible to die.

Especially Carrie.

As world continued to turn a darker shade of red, she felt her vocal chords vibrate inside her as she apparently spoke to Carrie.

Sarah doesn't actually know what she said to Carrie; the next thing she knew was her pipe connecting to Carrie's cranium and Carrie collapsing to the floor. The last thing the remaining solders heard before their own vision clouded, was the sound of something landing behind them.

Once there was no one left to kill, Sarah did the only thing that she was able to do.

She grabbed whatever money she could find on the bodies, put them all in the house, and overloaded the electrical circuits starting a fire.

Pushing the memories of her friends behind her; she started her journey towards whatever life the future held for her.

* * *

**~Sarah (age 16)**

Over the course of the past six years, Sarah had become the most ruthless and unforgiving mercenary Remnant had ever known.

While she always introduced herself with her full name: Sarah Kirtsov, her victims and employers always addressed her as Kirtsov.

After events that left her running from her home in Mistral and the mercenary lifestyle, she found herself in Vale.

On the day of her 16th birthday, five days after arriving in Vale, she decided to take running one step further. She was going to a place where, hopefully, she could finally start over in peace.

The only thing she kept that might connect her to her past life as a mercenary were her weapons.

That wasn't the only thing that she carried with her though, she also kept with her the memories of her friends.

There were nights that she work up screaming and every time it was the same nightmare.

Her childhood friends in that unstoppable inferno, burning alive and screaming in agony. All the while, Sarah stood in front of them, unable to move or do anything to stop it.

She was tired of the restless peace she had lived till today, so with the money that she had, she bought a one-way air ship ticket to Vacuo.

* * *

**~Soap (age 16) (the rest of the chapter happened in the time span of less than a day)**

There were times when being a bounty hunter without a personal means of transportation, having to rely om public transportation, was really annoying, this was one of those days.

Not being able to drive was one of the things that I, regrettably, never learned to do. However, when it came to this particular day I was glad that I didn't otherwise I wouldn't have had the fortune of making the catch I did.

I was on my way back to the church from nabbing a bounty on a crime lord in Mistral.

The ride back to Vale was, thankfully, uneventful; however, that's never stopped any excitement from happening to me.

My airship docked at the skyport and I was on my way down to street level when I noticed a girl in a pink hood running up towards the airship.

Normally I would have just left the girl to her business; but something about her made me stop for a second and watch.

Captivated by the girl, I subconsciously started to walk forward. Straight into her.

* * *

**~Sarah**

On any other day, Sarah would have been fine with having a cute boy practically land in on top of her, just not today.

In fact, it was because of him that she would end up missing her airship.

The boy, innocently enough, claimed that he didn't see her and helped her up.

'_Why is it that any and all things bad happen to me? He made me miss my airship!'_ She thought to her self as she watched the airship that she was supposed to be on, fly away without her.

Either not noticing or just not truly caring that she wasn't paying all too much attention, he started to introduce himself.

* * *

~Soap

__'I can't believe I just did that. I probably made her miss her airship. What do I do? What do I do?' __I thought to myself quickly.

Seeing no other polite thing to do, I helped her up after knocking her over and politely introduced myself.

She seemed nice enough and introduced herself as Sarah.

__'Sarah huh? That's a cute name___.'_

Finally able to get a good look at the girl I crashed into, I realized something: _'__She is really damn attractive.'_

I had only thought on my mind after this realization, _'How do I make a girl like this, fall for a guy like me?'_

* * *

~Sarah

__'Soap's an interesting name. I wonder if he chose that name or if that's his actual name.'_ _Sarah thought to herself after he introduced himself.

They stood there for a few awkward seconds, staring at each other; neither one of them knew what to do.

Soap was the first one to move. "Do you want to go grab a drink while I see what I can do about getting you a new ticket?" he asked, for some reason making Sarah's cheeks run hot.

__'It was an innocent question, so why am I blushing?'__ She thought to herself.

After she managed to get her blushing under control, she responded, "Why not?"

They then made their way to the nearest coffee shop.

* * *

~Soap

__'I can't believe that worked,'__ I silently cheered in my mind.

While she responded to my question, I managed to get a good look up into her hood. She had light pink and white cat ears.

This wasn't a problem for me, it's not like I hated the faunas or anything. If anything, because the fact that the events that tore my home away from me were committed by humans, I probably trust faunas more readily than I trust humans.

But that brought up a question, _'Why does _she hide the fact that she's a faunas. Maybe I should just start with who she is. Speaking of which...'__

I pulled out my scroll and began to swipe through the programs.

I already knew that she only said yes to get a free ticket, but I had a plan for that.

Once at the coffee shop, I put away my scroll upon entering.

I then proceeded to buy myself and Sarah a coffee and sat down at the first open table.

"Hey Sarah," I said getting her attention as she sipped her coffee, "we have a bit of time till the next available airship to Vaccuo even enters Vale airspace." I paused and put my scroll and coffee on the table, "and it will be a while before I can actually give you a ticket. In the meantime though, I have a question for you."

"Ask away." She said.

"Why do you hide who you really are?"

* * *

~Sarah

"Why do you hide who you really are?" These words made Sarah nearly choke on he coffee, hoping that he wasn't referring to her past, she asked him clarify.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"I mean, why hide that you're a faunas?"

That was an odd question, but it calmed her down a little. She had to think carefully about how to answer his question, though.

She thought about just giving Soap a phony answer when he spoke up.

"Oh, by the way. Don't even think about trying to lie to me. I'm a bounty hunter and have been for many years. As a bounty hunter, I have learned how to tell if some one is trying to lie to me. I also know when a person has something to hide. With that said, just tell the truth. It will be a lot easier for us both. Again though, why do you hide the fact that you're a faunas."

She had to think for a second because Sarah honestly didn't know herself. "I guess you could say that many times in my past, I have been judged for being a faunas; so I started to hide who I really was, to make certain that I wouldn't be judged."

"Alright. What would you say if I told you that I knew about your past?"

She started to panic. "You know about my past?"

He smiled, "Yes, Sarah. I know about your past."

At this she froze, how could anyone know about her past? She was careful to make sure she didn't leave any evidence.

"Now," He said grabbing her attention once more, "I did say I would get you a ticket, and I an always true to my word. I have it right here, actually."

He held up a small piece of silver paper with black printing on it for her to see. "First Class, Priority Express flight to Vaccuo. Leaves in 45 minutes."

He put the piece of paper in the direct center of the table and held up a finger, telling her to wait a moment, "Before I give it to you, I have something else to ask you."

She gave him a confused look, _'What else could you possibly have to ask me? I guess I'll find out.'_ She thought.

"If I offered you a chance to start your life over, a clean slate if you will, would you take it?"

The question took Sarah by surprise, it's not everyday that someone offers you a chance to start your life over.

"You would, of course, have to stay here in Vale with me. However, you would have no past to run from. Some would dare say that you would be at peace."

As Sarah thought about this she asked, "What would the other option be?"

"You could take the ticket before you and be on your way. I would personally make sure that your life is be paid for. Anything that you could ever dream of wanting could be yours; but you would be running from your past till the day you die."

"Yes." Sarah said, without a second's hesitation, hoping that he knew that she was referring to the first option.

* * *

~Soap

"Yes," She said, without specifying the answer, but I knew what she meant.

"Are you ready?" I asked standing up, offering her a hand.

Taking my hand and standing as well, Sarah nodded her head and asked where we were going.

I responded by saying, "I live in an old church outside of town."

Once I said this, Sarah nodded and teleported to the location I just described.

I wasn't the least bit surprised; I knew what her semblance was.

After unlocking the door and showing Sarah to the room where she would be staying; she dropped off her things in her room and followed me out to the lobby.

"Sarah, you have two options. I can give you a tour of my place right now and get to wiping your profile later, or I can start wiping it now, send you a map my place via scroll, and leave you to explore my home on your own."

After thinking for a little bit she decided to go exploring on her own, and left with out another word leaving me to do as I said I would do.

What Sarah didn't know is that it would only take me 5 minutes to do so.

Finishing up, I left my room and left to the sanctuary to grab my guitar and play a few songs to relax at the end of a long day.

I knew very well that Sarah, being a faunas, would eventually come find me.

Grabbing my capo and pick, I sat down and went to play a couple of my favorites.

_'But first, let's make sure that the guitar is in tune.'_

****(cue songs: Brother by NEEDTOBREATH)****

* * *

~Sarah

Having heard the sounds that were coming from the sanctuary; Sarah made her way to the room and walked in on Soap starting to play Brother.

Not knowing what he was doing, she quietly made her way one of the seats in front of the stage and sat down to listen.

To Sarah, it was like nothing she had ever heard before; it was music to her ears.

****(heh heh, I didn't mean to make a pun, but oh well)****

Lost to the rhythm of music, he didn't notice Sarah come in.

Finishing his song, he looked up from his guitar and saw Sarah sitting at the front of the stage listening to him.

Sarah, just now realizing that the pretty sounds had stopped, looked up to see Soap looking at her.

Sarah immediately thought that she was intruding on something that was meant to be private. So she quickly got up to leave and repeatedly apologized as she made her way to the door.

Rolling his eyes, Soap began to laugh at the sight that Sarah was becoming.

Realizing that he was laughing at her, she stopped and looked back at him.

"You don't care, do you?" She asked

"Nope."

Sarah began to process what she had just seen and heard when Soap interrupted her thoughts.

"If anything, why do you think that I started to play?" He asked.

"Play? What were you even doing?"

"Do you know what music is?"

In all of her life she had never heard of nor heard music, "Nope."

"It doesn't surprise me that you have never heard music before."

_'Great, I've got a smart-ass on my hands.' _She thought to herself. "OK then, what's music?" She asked.

"Historically, it's an art that was lost to the Grimm War. This is an old Church Sarah. I found these guitar's sealed in a hidden room behind one of the walls. The fact that they still existed, let alone still intact, is a miracle. However, by definition, music is the expression of the individual through the combination of separate notes, rhythms, melodies, and harmonies to create songs." He paused for second to take a breath, Sarah leaning forward on the edge of the stage, waiting for him to continue. "Judging by the way that you're waiting for me to continue, I take it that you have an interest in music. Would you like to learn?"

Truth be told, it wasn't the main reason she was leaning forward. She was looking over the boy in front of her, realizing just how cute he was.

He spoke, "Sarah?"

She realized that she had be caught and looked away to hide her blush.

She thought about his offer though, after some consideration; she saw a way to spend some time with him. "What would I be learning to do?" She asked.

"For starters, you would learn how to sing."

Finally getting her blush under control, she asked,"Sing? Is that what you were doing with your voice during that...song?"

"Yep. That's what I was doing. So, what do you say? Do you want to learn?"

"Sure."

Moving off the stage and next to Sarah; Soap spent the next 15 minutes teaching Sarah how to match the pitch of whatever note Soap would play for a song.

Once that was done, Soap handed her the words to the song I'm Yours by Jason Mraz, told her to follow along, and started to play.

As it happened to be, Sarah was an amazing singer with little to no experience.

Done with singing for the time being, he finally asked her how she had an unlocked aura and semblance.

"I have no idea. The first thing that I can remember is waking up with it unlocked, and the want to fight."

This made Soap wonder aloud, "I wonder what my semblance would be."

Sarah thought to herself for a moment _'___I just met Soap today and yet it feels like I've known him for a lifetime. He's done so much for me already, unlocking his semblance would be the least I could do to return the favor. I like the guy, I can't deny that; but since my aura was unlocked at such a young age, unlocking his aura would permanently link myself to him...You know what; fuck it, I don't care. If he feels anything towards me...'__

Interrupting her thoughts, Soap asked, "Sarah, do you know why I ran into you at the airship?"

Sarah shook her head, in fact she didn't know.

"I was starstruck at how beautiful you were and...I just walked into you. Now I don't know if you feel the same way that I do, bu-" He said as a soft pair of lips met his.

Soap was shocked, to say the least, that she felt the same way. He hesitated for a moment but kissed her back.

After the need of air became too much to bear, they broke apart.

"Does that answer your question?" She said, still panting from the lack of air. "Now, about that aura..."

* * *

One of the things that Sarah explained to Soap is that the ritual would essentially be taking a piece of her own aura and placing it inside him to unlock his. Once unlocked, to complete the ritual he would have to take a piece of his aura and place it inside of her ****(why does it have to sound so sexual?) ****forming a bond between them.

**(Just a quick side note for those of you that do not 100% understand bonds. A lot will be explained in detail in an upcoming chapter.)**

After explaining what would happen during the ritual to unlock his aura and semblance, she asked him one last time, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Without missing a beat, he nodded his head yes, and she began.

* * *

~Soap

With my aura and semblance now unlocked, Sarah said that she would begin training me tomorrow.

But for now, we went back to my. No. Our room.

The events that proceeded after entering our room, would never be known to anyone but ourselves.

And yet, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I thought to myself as I began to drift to sleep, Sarah pulling me tightly into her chest as she slept peacefully:

_"What could be better?"_

* * *

****A/N: I honestly did not expect getting to 5K+ words in one chapter, but now you know how Sarah and Soap/me met and are able to use each others semblance.****

****Sarah: Not to mention the things that we are able to do when we combine them in combat.****

****Soap: Very, very true. It's been a long day *yawns* ready for some sleep?****

****Sarah: Yeah, let's get some sleep.****

* * *

****Edit: 3-17-2015; HOLY SHIT! 7.5K+ words after switching Soap's perspectives to first person and making things flow a little better. Added a shit ton of detail to the Soap's traumatic scene and Sarah's Traumatic scene including "Carrie"****


	4. Ch 3: that really matters

**A/N: It's going to be a long night...I have a lot to type.**

**Sarah: Then you might want to get started.**

**Soap: I am, I am...**

**Bucky: Yeah! Hurry up would ya!**

**Soap: You're not even in the story yet...OUT till you come in.**

**Bucky: ...Fine...**

**Soap: *sighs* OK. Let's get started.**

* * *

**Edit: T****he actual story will start on "Ch 5: whom we love". So if you don't want to read back story, just skip to that chapter.******

* * *

Chapter 3 (back story part 2): that really matters

* * *

The next week, as Sarah had said she would do, consisted mainly of unarmed combat training both with and without semblances.

After the first week, she offered to teach me more advanced techniques, but that I would need to design and build a weapon before she would be able to.

While I did already have my Deagle, it wasn't exactly the best weapon for a close range fight. Not to mention that it had been a while since I had used anything else; so, I got to work.

Originally, the design I had in mind was a simple as Sarah's metal pipes, however, that quickly changed after a few more hours to flesh out the design; two Guard-less katanas that could be combined to make a bow staff or could change into a sort of bladed whip.

After I finished building them, I looked back over my Deagle and decided to keep it as a long range option of attack. Unfortunately, though, it would need a serious upgrade and I already had the specific upgrades in mind.

After I finished upgrading my sidearm, it had a faster cycling rate, a faster action, and a faster slide and hammer. I also changed out the ammo from the high damage, Red, or Fire, Dust rounds to Ice Dust rounds to complement my semblance; which were smoke powers. If it wasn't for the element, my semblance would be exactly the same as Sarah's.

**(While not a complete rip-off of inFAMOUS: Second Sun, just use that image as a basis of Soap's semblance. ****A more detailed explanation of their semblances will be at bottom A/N)**

The fact that my semblance was essentially the same as Sarah's was a bit of an oddity. Your aura and Semblance were supposed a direct manifestation of your soul and no two people were the same; so it's impossible for two people to have the same semblance.

The only explanation that we could come up with for this was that it was a result of a combination of two different factors: the fact that Sarah's aura had been unlocked from such an early age; and the method through which my aura was unlocked, with the assistance of another's aura.

This method of unlocking aura was very rare today. If one were to go back in time 20 years, you would find that the technique of unlocking aura through another's was almost a common practice; but if you looked today, it was almost nonexistent.

For what reason, I could not say; nonetheless though, I was grateful that she knew the rare and ancient method.

A day or two after my weapons were complete, and I got a feel for how they handled; Sarah began my training with them.

It was during one of these training sessions that an old friend of mine decided to show his face.

* * *

After we were done with training for the day, Sarah and I were headed back to our room to hit the shower when we heard a knock at the front door.

I scratched my head as I made my way to the door with Sarah, trying to figure out who could possibly be knocking at our door.

As far as I knew, there was only one person, other than Sarah and I, that knew where the church was and the last I heard, he was on an airship on it's way to Atlas, and that was 11 years ago.

"Who could that be Soap?" Sarah asked me.

"To be honest, I have no idea." I replied.

Just then, a familiar voice called out from the other side of the door, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

Upon hearing the voice, I looked out the window, "It couldn't be! Holy Shit! It is!" I opened the door to reveal Andeus "Bucky" McGillicudy trying to hold onto multiple bags; the same person that was kind enough to give me a ride to Vale 11 years ago.

"Hey man, it's been a while." Bucky said, finally getting a hold on all of his bags.

"Yes it has." I said a little bitterly as I remembered the events that followed Bucky dropping me off. "What are you doing here?"

"Two reasons. One, you owe me; two, I need a roof over my head."

"What do I owe you fo...oh yeah." I said as I realized what he was referring to.

11 years ago, Bucky gave me several thousand Lien to help with the purchase of whatever home I chose to buy.

"Yep, and right now, the best way to pay me back would be giving me a place to stay."

After thinking it over for a few seconds, I sighed and agreed, "Fine. Down the hall to the left, through the 4th door on the right is an empty room. I'll show ya." I grabbed on of his bags and began walking towards the door that I just described.

"Hey Soap?" I heard Sarah say from behind me.

"Yeah Sarah?" I replied.

"I'm going to go take a shower. I'll see you at dinner." She said as she turned around.

"Alright, see ya then." I said, flashing a smile her way.

Turning around, I motioned for Bucky to follow me.

Once we were almost at, what would be, his room, Bucky decided to break the silence.

"Ok, listen. I don't like bad blood, so I'm going to say right here and now that I'm sorry for what I did all those years ago; I feel terrible about it. I promise I won't be doing it ever ever again. Please forgive me." He said, somewhat beggingly.

I smiled, the bitter facade I had put on for the past couple minutes worked. "Bro, I forgave you 10 years ago. No harsh feelings."

He looked slightly surprised, but continued, "If you don't mind, I have a couple of questions for ya."

"Ask away."

"Who was that girl you were talking to back in the lobby?" Bucky asked.

"That was Sarah, my girlfriend." I said nonchalantly.

"NO WAY! YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND?!" Bucky yelled instantly upon hearing the news.

Even though I couldn't hear a thing in my left ear, I nodded my head yes.

"Cool. Also, she called you 'Soap'?" Bucky asked, somewhat confused.

I laughed a little once I had partial hearing again.

When I first met Bucky, I didn't go by Soap. I first started using 'Soap' as my name shortly before I became a bounty hunter.

"Yep, that's my name. Why do you ask?"

"That's not the name you used to introduce yourself to me 11 years ago." Bucky said.

I smiled, "I know, but it's my name now; and here's a question for you Bucky, do you actually remember what my real name is?"

Bucky scratched his head, "Uhh..."

I laughed again at this, "I didn't think so. And please do me a favor; if at some point in the future you _do _remember my real name, don't tell anyone. It is the only link left that could link me to a lifestyle that's been long forgotten; a link that I do not want to exist. If you can do that for me, I would be eternally grateful." I said seriously.

"No problem...Soap." He said trying my 'new' name out. After thinking about it for a little, he spoke again, "So, you do anything else in the past 11 years?"

"I did, but remind me to tell you about it later. I have to go make dinner." I said, turning around to leave.

I was stopped by a hand as I reached the door, "No no. Let me cook. You have done enough for me already, this would be the least I can do to repay you. Plus I make a good meal." Bucky said already on his way out the door; I followed close behind.

"You can cook?" I asked raising an eyebrow. I honestly wasn't sure whether or not to believe him.

"You better believe it!" Bucky said as he stopped at an intersection.

I shrugged, "Alright. The kitchen's down that hallway," I pointed, "first door on the right."

"Sweet, see you at dinner." Bucky said, on his way to the kitchen.

"See ya." I said, rolling my eyes.

* * *

**(A/N: On to more back story. Oh, just so you know; that entire section with Bucky was 100% not planned and look how good that turned out!)**

* * *

_"Nothing really happened after Bucky joined us. Sarah finished training me in combat, something that I actually surpassed her in skill, and began training Bucky. With my help of course. During the down time, Sarah and I taught each other tricks that we had learned over the years in the field and I also taught Sarah what I knew about technology which she - surprisingly enough, well at least to me anyways - took up with great ease._

_"After that, Sarah, Bucky, and myself, grabbed bounties together. After a year of persistent pestering from Bucky, he finally convinced me to take Sarah out on a proper date. I'll admit, at the time I was a little annoyed, however; looking back on the events now, some 26 years later, I'm glad he did.  
_

_"The reason; if he hadn't, one of your favorite babysitters wouldn't have been around to watch you. Can you guess who it was John? I'll give you a hint, you used to call her 'Auntie Hawky'..._

* * *

~Sam

When she woke up, it was in a place that was not her home.

The young hawk fanus wondered where she was and why she was there.

Looking around, she let out a yawn and stretched her body, including her 10 foot long wings.

_'An alley, What the heck happened? Everything's fuzzy. OK, one thing at a time; name, Sam Krestfield; age, 14. I remember now; I ran...away from my home. Why did I think running away was a good idea? Oh yeah...to escape...from my...parents.'_ She shuddered at the thought.

_'It's been three weeks; by now they probably think I'm dead. How fitting, I almost am.'_ She thought to herself as her stomach let out a growl.

* * *

~Soap

"You see that Sarah?" I said as I stared down an alleyway.

"See what?" She asked, trying to look past me.

"I just saw something move in the alley." I said as I slowly started making my way towards it.

"You wanna check it out?" She asked aloud. Quietly she added, "I know you won't leave it alone otherwise."

"Yeah, we might want to." I replied, not bothering to acknowledge that last part.

As I made my way down the alleyway, I found my self in front of a young faunas with white hawk wings leaning against a wall with a somewhat dazed and confused look on her face. The girl couldn't have been more than 14 years old.

Eventually the faunas realized that we had somehow snuck up on her and looked at us.

Sarah and I looked at each other and then back to the faunas against the wall. She was visibly shaking and looked as if she hadn't eaten in days. It occurred to me that looked about ready to bolt in us; probably because we managed to catch her off guard.

Soon enough she spoke, "Who are you?" Her voice wasn't as high as Sarah's, which surprised me since she was younger than her, but it was still higher than mine.

After I thought for a moment, I spoke, "Well...we go by many names. However, our favorites have to be Sarah," I pointed at her, "and Soap." I pointed to myself.

She looked at me disbelievingly.

"What?" I asked her once I saw the expression her face held.

"Is your name really Soap?"

"Yes." I replied.

She shrugged, "Cool, my name's Sam Krestfield."

"Krestfield? Like the shipping company?" Sarah asked somewhat suspiciously.

Krestfield Shipping Company is possibly the single most dominant freighter company on all of Remnant. I knew that this in and of itself was nothing special, the company just managed to get itself known before others were established, however, what made the company special was the fact that the founders, and current owners, of the company were faunas. Sitting on the ground, in an alleyway, in front of me, was the oldest daughter of said owners.

"Yeah, those are my parents." Sam responded looking away from us.

As she did, I could see that she did so with a look of shame.

"Really? Then why are you here, in an alleyway, looking like you're about to stave to death?" I asked.

Things weren't adding up, why would the daughter of such a highly praised company be out on the streets looking like she was about to keel over from starvation?

She laughed weakly, "Because, one, I ran, and two, I am about to starve to death."

I was slightly alarmed when she said this.

Quietly through our bond, I spoke to Sarah, _"Hey Sarah, can you go get her something to eat? I would rather her not die before we had the chance to talk to her."_

_"Sure."_ Sarah replied back. She activated her semblance and disappeared.

"Please don't tell my parents where I am, I know that there's a large reward for find-"

"Hey, no worries. I'm not going to turn you in to your parents. You said that you ran; that fact alone tells me that you had a reason for leaving. People that live in the comfort of luxury don't just leave it behind for no good reason, however, I won't pry. To be honest though, I guess you could say that running is something that we have in common. As for the reward, I am already set for life." I said, cutting her off.

In my head, I heard Sarah say, _"Food incoming." _

Just then, she reappeared beside me with a bacon wrapped cheeseburger and a water bottle in her hands which she promptly handed to Sam who took it with delight.

Sam practically inhaled the meal.

"In case you were wondering; one of the reasons why I ran was that I wanted to experience adventure." She said when she finished her food.

I heard this and looked at Sarah smiling. I didn't need to tell her anything, the smile on my face told her everything she needed to know.

Smiling back, Sarah said, "I'll go get the car."

I tossed her the keys. "Send Bucky a message about our recent events."

Sarah caught them out of the air and nodded before she activated her semblance and disappeared from sight.

I turned back to Sam, "You wanted to find adventure?" I asked her as I extended a hand to her to help her off the ground.

Once she was standing, she answered him politely, "Yeah, I did."

"Did you find it?" I asked her with a knowing smile.

She shook her head, "No. All I found was starvation and death that was staring me in the face."

"Then I have an offer for you." Her head perked up when she heard me. I continued, "I can give you a new life, a clean slate and a new identity, and you can experience adventure just as you said you wanted; or, you can stay here and die a slow and rather unpleasant death from starvation while knowing that you stared adventure in the face and didn't bite."

Without giving the offer a second's thought, she responded, "Option one."

"Are you sure-" I started to say.

"Of course. Why wouldn't-"

"-because the two conditions are: One, You have to stay here in Vale with Sarah and I, and two, you will never be able to go back on your word. The decision that you make right here, right now is final." I finished.

She thought for a second before responding with 100% certainty in her voice, "I am sure."

I held out my hand and she looked at it with a confused expression on her face. "Where I come from, shaking hands was a way of sealing deals." I said.

"Ohhh." She said as she took my hand firmly and shook it.

"Alright then, let's get you back to the church for some real rest and a shower. No offense, but you stink." I said, waving my hand in front of my nose.

She opened her mouth to protest my statement, but stopped as she got a whiff of herself, "I was going to argue, but now I can't do anything but agree with you on that."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my car pull up next to the alleyway in the street.

"Let's get going. Our ride is here." I said as I started towards it. Sam followed me close behind.

* * *

After we exited the alleyway, I heard Sam whistle in amazement behind me as she looked my car over.

"Damn, that's a sick car." She said as moved closer to get a better look at it. "That's a 1968 Camaro SS with a 396 engine bored .30 over, right?"

I nodded in response, "Mmhhm. Looks like you know a bit about cars."

"Plus everything's original except the fan."

Ok, now I was impressed, " Ok, I take my statement back; you _really_ know your stuff about cars."

"And guns. When I lived with my parents, I had a lot of spare time on my hands. So I took an interest in guns and cars. I am quite proficient in making, repairing, upgrading and customizing them. This is supposed to be the rarest car on the planet, where'd you get it?" Sam asked, genuinely curious.

"I got it from a mechanic named Morgoth Osmogad; he's got a shop in downtown Vale. Interesting guy that's for sure. Ready to go?" I asked her.

Sam wasn't moving and was still staring at my car; so I tried a different tactic, "I'll let you tinker with it after we get you cleaned up. Deal?"

"Seriously?" Sam asked surprised.

"Why not? I've got four of them." I said nonchalantly.

No response. I looked over at Sam and realized that I probably shouldn't have said that.

Sam was frozen in amazement.

"Sa...Sam? Sam, you ok? Sam?" I tried to snap her out her trance but failed to do so.

I sighed heavily as I turned to Sarah to ask for help.

"I think you broke her!" Sarah said, laughing at my mistake.

"I can see that Sarah. Can you help me get her in the back?"

"Nope. Your mistake, your consequences." She said, still laughing at me.

I sighed heavily as I picked her up.

After I managed to wrangle her into the back of the car, I sat down in the passenger seat. "Thanks for the help Sarah." I said sarcastically.

"Anytime." Sarah said, laughing harder than ever.

"Just drive." I said, crossing my arms and frowning.

* * *

~Sam (3rd Person)

After Soap and co. got to the church and found a way to snap Sam out of her trance, which ended up involving a bucket of ice water, they directed her to the nearest shower and told her to take her time. Something that she was glad to do.

Finally cleaned up for the first time in over three weeks, Sam made her way to the room that Soap had said was now her's.

Upon entering her room, she spotted a set of white colored clothes, that matched what Soap and Sarah wore, on her bed waiting for her to put them on.

After putting said clothes on and taking a look at herself in the mirror; she silently wished in her mind that it was a different color scheme.

After specifying what colors she wanted in her mind; see blinked and saw that the clothes were the colors she wanted.

**(I honestly couldn't think of anyway for her to change her clothes' colors, at least not practically. If you want to argue it, then the reason will be that Soap is a super genius and Sam's clothes is made of nanotechnology and can change to her will.)**

Not believing what she just saw, she went to find Soap and Sarah.

After wondering the halls of the church for a little, she found her way to the kitchen.

When she entered and spotted a man leaning over a stove, preparing a plate of food. Since she didn't know where she could find Soap and Sarah, she tugged his apron to get his attention.

Bucky was, indeed, preparing a plate of food; but not for himself.

As he was about to turn around, he felt a tug on his apron. When he turned around, he found himself looking at the face of a hawk fanus.

She was around five foot two, had purple eyes, dull red hair, and couldn't be any older than 14. Her clothes were an exact replica of Soap and Sarah's outfit; minus the colors, which were green, black, and yellow. On her back were a pair of 12 foot long, white hawk wings.

Since she matched the description that Sarah had sent him, he assumed that she was Sam. He spoke, "Oh hey, perfect timing. I was just about to bring some food down to your room. You're Sam right? I'm Andeus McGillicudy, but call me Bucky." He extended his hand to her which she grabbed and shook.

"Yeah, that's me. It's nice to meet you." Sam replied.

While she ate, Sam and Bucky talked about various things. Eventually though they got onto the topic of Soap and Sarah. Bucky told her about the tragic pasts that haunted Soap and Sarah. He also explained how Soap obtained the church, how Soap and Sarah met each other, and how he, Bucky, fit into their story.

Once Sam was done with the meal that had been prepared for her, she thanked him for the food and asked where she might find Soap and Sarah.

Bucky replied that he had last seen them entering the sanctuary.

After she received directions to the sanctuary, she thanked him again and headed towards the sanctuary.

* * *

As she neared the sanctuary, she began to hear something that she had never heard before in her life. Music.

She found Sarah siting at a giant black device **(piano)** that some of the noise was coming from; the rest of the noise was coming from a strange looking device **(guitar)** that Soap was holding.

Since she didn't want to interrupt anything, she sat down on the steps leading up to the stage and listened to them.

***Cue Closer to Love by Mat Kearney***

Halfway through the song, Soap glanced up from his guitar and saw Sam sitting on the steps watching them.

He motioned for her to join them and she did.

Up on stage, he motioned for her to sit down beside Sarah.

He then handed her a piece of paper with words on it and told her to sing along.

Sam had no clue what he meant, so Soap clarified himself. He told her to say the words on the paper when Sarah said them and to match the pitch of Sarah's voice as well.

She did as she was told, and as it turns out, Sam was a decent singer.

After the music lesson, Soap set aside his guitar and spoke, "I said that I would give you a new identity and the adventure that you've always wanted. Well, here you go." Soap handed her a scroll and motioned for her to hand him her old one.

As soon as Soap had his hands on the scroll, he started to disassemble it. When he finally got to what he was looking for, he took out a small data chip. "In case you're wondering, what I just took out was a tracking chip. It's standard in every scroll and only actually tracks you when you use it or get a message or a call. You can have it back now, just don't make any calls; on that one anyways."

Sam looked at him with a confused expression. "Why?" She asked.

"Because, Sam Krestfield is 'officially' dead; you are now Sam Krest. There's your new identity; as for the adventure, your training starts tomorrow."

"Training? Training for what?" Sam asked.

"Combat training."

Sam just gave him another confused look.

Soap facepalmed himself, "I didn't tell her what we do for a living, did I?"

Sarah shook her head.

Soap sighed, "Sarah, Bucky, and myself are bounty hunters. In a couple of weeks, I intend on taking you with us to claim a bounty."

Sam was completely fine with the prospect of learning becoming a bounty hunter, "As long as I get to design my own weapons, I'm cool with it."

"Good. Now get some sleep, you're going to need it. Good night." Soap said as he activated his semblance and disappeared, taking Sarah with him.

* * *

**A/N: And with that, we are almost done with my team's back story's. Only one more to go.**

**Sam: Thank you for taking me in, and thanks for telling me about music.**

**Soap: No problem. I need to go to bed though, *yawns* typing all of that out was tiring. See you guys next time.**

* * *

**Now for that explanation I promised.**

****Soap's semblance is smoke and fire. Sarah's semblance is electricity or lightning, depending on how you want to look at it. Their semblances allow them to teleport, engulf themselves with their semblance, combine their semblances with their weapons, create throwable elemental grenades and fly; but all of these come with a cost to their aura with teleportation and flying using the most and using grenades and engulfing themselves/their weapon with their weapon using the least. ****Slowing down the teleporting process allows them to teleport pieces of themselves elsewhere, however doing so uses more aura than just teleporting all of themselves. ********

****Thanks to the 'World of Remnant' video on aura which was included on the Blue-Ray copy of RWBY: Volume 2, we know that Semblances are "the manifestation of one's innate and personal power as an ability unique to each individual, with the effects varying greatly from user to user." (rwby,wikia,com/wiki/Semblance) Each individual has their own semblance unique to themselves and only themselves. This is true in my universe as well but because of the special circumstances that Soap's aura was unlocked, this will be explored more in depth later on in the story, his semblance is effectively the same as Sarah's. The only thing difference being the element. ****

****In regards to semblance usage, "...overuse of one's semblance for prolonged periods may adversely affect its user...". In other words, the longer someone uses their semblance, the more their aura is used. That part is cannon. All of this is true in my AU. However, in my story, activating your semblance doesn't drain your aura unless you do something with it; an example of doing something would be Weiss using a glyph or Soap teleporting himself somewhere.****

* * *

****Edit: 3-27-2015; The more I add of the narrator-esq sections in _italics, _the more I realize how much it's starting to sound like the beginning of Halo 3.****


	5. Ch 4: are the ones

**A/N: Onwards to the final back story of my team. After I finish this chapter, I literally have no idea where this Fic will take me. I am probably going to need ideas from you guys.**

**Sarah: Why? Cat's got your tongue?**

**Soap: Well sor- Did you seriously just make a cat pun when you yourself are a cat faunas?**

**Sarah: Yeah, do you have a problem with that?**

**Soap: No it's jus-ugh. You infuriate me sometimes, you know that?**

**Sarah: *Satisfied voice* Yeah.**

**Soap: *Heavy sigh* Whatever let's just get on to the story.**

* * *

****Edit: T****he actual story will start on what will be titled as "Ch 5: whom we love". So if you don't want to read back story, just skip to that chapter.********

* * *

Chapter 4 (back story part 3): are the ones

* * *

_"Two years before Sarah and I fell in love, three years before we took in Sam; the world of an innocent 12 year old boy was shattered beyond repair in ways that I couldn't imagine, even today. Many years later, that same boy married your 'Auntie Hawky'. But again, I'm getting ahead of myself. The boy's name was Drake Hemington._

_"Drake's father was a successful hunter in Vacuo and Drake admired him to no end, however, the extent to which Drake admired his father, only made the news of his death that much harder. To say the least, Drake fell into a deep depression. Anyone that saw him during that time would have clearly seen the extent of the depression that his father's death left him in._

_"Looking back on his past now, I guess I can understand why the White Fang chose to kidnap him. A kid in that state, even one that's a Huntsman's son, would have been an easy target. However, the White Fang then was more unorganized than the White Fang I came to know many years later which meant that they didn't do their homework well enough. If they had, they would have known that his mother died during childbirth and that his father had died recently. Which meant their was nobody left to care that he was missing._

_"What few that knew and cared about him, were either too young or not willing to do something. The police, of course, looked for him; but they found nothing. E__ventually, the White Fang tried to make a ransom attempt for him, however their faint voice fell on deft ears. _

_"Since their plan failed, they decided to make the best out of the situation turning their worthless hostage into a human guinnea pig to practice their torture techniques on._

_"First came the beating and cutting to any and all exposed skin. By then, one year's time had passed since the White Fang's ransom attempt failed. _

_"Next, they cut his vocal chords so that they could get more aggressive in their techniques without the risk of Drake's screams damaging their sensitive hearing. 3 months had now passed. _

_"Next came fighting practice. They set Drake up on one side of a arena with his hands tied behind his back. During the first fight they put him in, they found that he had an unlocked semblance; so they did one of the most painful things you could ever do to a, at that point, 14 year old child; they locked his aura. By then, 2 years had passed since Drake was kidnapped and the police started their investigation; something that they had been at for 2 years. By now, the police had stopped their search and declared Drake a lost cause; it was around the same time that I ran into Sarah, your mom, and literally swept her off her feet._

_"Next was the slave treatment; something that was humiliating but Drake had no choice but to comply. By now, 3 years had passed. It was around now that Sarah and I found Sam on the streets and took her in, giving her a chance at the adventure she always wanted. _

_"The White Fang were running out of use for Drake but they were prepare for a time like that. As a way to practice an older torture technique, they amputated portions of his arms. They cut just below his his right shoulder, removing most of his right arm, and also removed the lower half of his left arm, just below the elbow. They were kind enough to close the wounds that they caused; but as an added measure of torture, they were very sloppy. Nearly four__ years had passed and the White Fang planned to execute him in two days time, on his 16th birthday. At that point, I'm sure that Drake was ready to die; he had seen 3 of his birthdays come to pass without a sign of rescue. _

_"If it had been me in that position, I would have given up all hope for rescue a long, long time ago..._

* * *

Nearly a year after she began her training with Sarah and I, Sam became our long-range and stealth specialist.

Not to mention the fact that she, literally, had the eyes of a hawk and, after some much needed help and practice, could fly like one too.

Before Sam met us, she never had any reason to fly, so he use with her wings were limited; however, after a year of flying lessons from Sarah, she was able to fly extraordinarily well - especially when she used her semblance while doing so.

A few days after Sarah and I began training Sam, we saw it necessary for her aura to be unlocked.

When I went about unlocking Sam's aura and semblance, I did so almost religiously.

**(From here on out, whenever I say aura in regards to it being unlocked, just know that I am referring to both aura and semblance.)**

When a person unlocks someone else's aura, a bond is formed between the person who's aura is being unlocked and the person doing the unlocking.

I wasn't willing to risk my relationship with Sarah in anyway - nothing was worth that - because of this, I took to using the, somewhat, newer and more archaic method to unlock Sam's aura.

Eventually, we were able to unlock it. Ironically enough, or not, - it depends on how you see things - her semblance ended up being: Wind.

Having wind as a semblance, combined with the fact that she was a hawk faunas - you know, with wings - was incredibly useful. She could, with her semblance, flying for extended periods of time and, if she truly wanted to, throw people around with it.

Sam, being born a heiress to a rich corporation, didn't necessarily like it when she didn't get what she wanted; particularly when it came to intel.

It was through her persistent nature, and a few of her alternate methods that she had devolved, that she was able to discover the possible location of a major White Fang base hidden outside the walls of the kingdom of Vacuo.

On any other occasion, I probably would have blown off the info; however, because of the location that said base was supposed to be situated, I was intrigued.

Sam, who was confused as to why I took a sudden interest in the base, asked why.

I did my best to explain.

I told her that since I was a rather successful bounty hunter, I often found myself in possession of - either by my own methods or by the said police just sending me them outright - police reports and rumors regarding the criminal underworld; this base and what it was supposed to be known for was one such rumor.

"Almost 4 years ago," I told her, "I managed to come across police reports on an incident involving a 12 year old boy, that had been kidnapped by local Vacuo White Fang members, and an attempt by said White Fang to get some money out of him via ransom. In the end, the Vacuo Police Force abandoned the case - their excuse was that the evidence trail had gone cold and that they couldn't find anymore leads; I personally didn't believe them - and the kid was never found." **(Ughh. I hate how that line sounds but I couldn't think of any other way to word it.)**

I went on to explain that the White Fang, allegedly, executed their hostages after exactly 4 years of not being claimed for ransom. "That said, that boy that was captured almost 4 years ago, has less than two days left." That was, IF, he was still alive.

Once Sam and Sarah heard that they might be able to get some action, they rushed off to get their gear together.

Since I already had my gear together, I went to the garage to start up my new toy; a custom Bullhead Troop Carrier with room for 50, plus a pilot and co-pilot.

The Bullhead itself had extensive modifications which included a stealth system and a couple offensive options should the need arise, all courtesy of Sam. The offensive measures included, but were not limited to, four .50 **(if anyone doesn't know, .50 is how 50 caliber is written without writing caliber)** Gatling guns and a 105 mm Dust cannon.

If the kid was actually alive after all these years, he would more than likely need medical attention; something I had plenty of space for.

The ride to the base would take a little over an hour; nothing too strenuous, but long enough for Sarah and Sam to get some shut eye on the way.

While they were asleep, I thought over the possible scenarios of our mission.

While I was thinking the mission over it occurred to me that IF the kid was still alive after years of torture, he probably wouldn't trust faunas; or at least not readily.

Usually this wouldn't make me worried; however 1/2 of my team, thus far, was faunas - myself and Bucky being the exceptions.

The reason why this worried me was that if either Sam or Sarah, especially Sarah, were harmed in anyway by the kid; I would more than likely lose con...No. I wouldn't let that happen.

**(Phew! That was a lot of necessary universe and backstory building. Now back to Drake's backstory)**

* * *

When were about 5 minutes from the base, I woke the others so they could get ready.

I was able to find a clearing not far from the base to set down.

Once we were on the ground, Sam immediately made her way to and up the tallest tree to get a good view of the compound.

With overwatch in place, I handed Sarah some remote explosives to plant around the compound. The White Fang had major footholds in both Atlas and Mistral and was ever increasing in Vale; however, because of the harsh and hostile climate that Vacuo presented, the White Fang there were hard time getting a foothold in the desert kingdom - something that I wanted to make sure didn't happen.

There was enough terroristic White Fang in Remnant already.

With Sarah, Sam, Bucky, and myself being professional bounty hunters, we were all outfitted with, among other things, several means of communication including: our scrolls and ear pieces that could act as both a wireless headset for our scrolls and a standalone two-way radio.

Bucky was back at the church monitoring radar and air traffic, making sure that no reinforcements were called in.

Inside the base, I was having a bit of a hard time catching a break.

A White Fang base meant faunas. Faunas meant enhanced hearing, sight, and smell, which also meant that I had to continuously teleport from rooftop to rooftop to make sure I wasn't seen.

Sarah, on the other hand, was able to walk around the compound just fine without raising questions; once she snagged an outfit.

Since Sarah was the only one that had an outfit, I charged her with the planting of the explosives.

While she was doing that, I was trying to figure out where the White Fang were hiding their hostage.

"Sam, you see anything near me from where you are?" I asked as quietly as I could into my headset.

"Not really." She replied. "8 o' clock 250 feet out, the building with the blue roof seems to have more patrols around it than the other buildings."

"Sarah, can you confirm this?" I asked.

"From what I can see, yeah." She replied.

"Alright; Sarah, go ahead and move in. I'll be there in a bit since I used too much of my aura a bit too quickly. I'll be there as soon as I've rested up a bit."

"Alright, I'll meet you inside."

"Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"Please be careful, this guy has been here for nearly 4 years, I don't think he'll be very happy to see another faunas dressed in a White Fang uniform, so see if you can ditch the outfit before you search the building. If not..." I sighed, "Just please promise me that you will be careful."

"I promise." Sarah responded, her voice slipping into the voice that she used when she was trying to seduce me, but she was cut off by Sam before she was able to.

"Ughh. Please don't do this now." I knew that Sam knew that Sarah and I were going to tease her for not having a boyfriend, again; something that I was pretty sure Sam didn't want to go through, again.

"Whatever Sam." I responded, laughing at our easily discomforted companion. "Just get ready in case something happens."

"Roger." Sam responded, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

* * *

_"Soap, he's here." _Sarah's voice said as it echoed through my mind.

_"Are you sure?"_ I asked in return.

_"He matches the description. Looks to be about 16 years old, has brown hair and black eyes with a hint of blue; it's definitely him. I'm low on aura so I'll need your help getting him out of here."_

_"Alright I'll be there in 3. Stay hidden and don't attract attention to yourself."_

_"Just hurry up please."_

_"I'm coming."_ I said as I got to the roof of the building.

After looking around for a minute, I finally found an entrance.

As I entered, something felt off.

I tried calling out to Sarah but got no reply.

_Fuck. Sarah's not answering. This can't be good. _I thought to myself as I started to worry.

I radioed Sam, "Sam, something doesn't feel right. Eyes on the building; if anyone leaves or tries to enter that isn't me or Sarah, drop em."

"Roger."

When I entered the building, I found Sarah. She was on the ground next to the boy they were after, both of them unconscious.

When I moved in to get a better look, I saw something else in the corner of my eye standing in the shadows across the room.

It was, what looked to be, the highest ranking officer in the compound waiting for me. A high-powered handgun leveled at my head.

"I know better than to try and sneak up on a faunas, so I'm not going to even try." I said; unholstering my Deagel, placing it on the floor.

"What manners. And here I thought that all humans were rude." The officer said genuinely surprised.

"Nah. Only the ones that aren't me." I said, kicking my gun towards the officer.

The officer stopped the gun with his foot. "Tell me, are you from Beacon?"

"Nope, me and my partner are solo."

"Hmmm. I see, and who might this partner be?"

"Well you're kinda standing over her."

"What do you and your partner call yourselves?"

I internally grinned. "She," I said, pointing to Sarah, "is perhaps the most infamous mercenary in the world. She is also responsible for the slaughter of a regiment of White Fang 8 years ago. The regiment was attacking an orphanage, trying to get new recruits when she intervened. Needless to say, those that were guilty, paid for their sins. You probably know her as Sarah 'Hearts' Kirtsov."

The officer's face lost some of its color when he realized who he had knocked unconscious, "Flash Lightning."

"It seems that the whispers have finally spread after all these years." I said, satisfied with my work.

The officer regained his emotionless composure and addressed me, "What about you? All you have done so far is make me proud that I have captured number two of the White Fang's most wanted. What name could you have that could make me fear you?"

I smiled wildly. "I am the world's youngest millionaire, I am Remnant's youngest and most infamous bounty hunter; my name is Soap."

"I've never heard of you."

My smile widened as I laughed. "This doesn't surprise me in the slightest."

"Explain yourself." He said, pulling the chamber back on his gun.

"The fact that you have never heard of me means that I have done my job correctly."

"Enough idle chatter, answer my question and TELL ME YOUR NAME!" The officer shouted.

"I have many names." I said, suddenly serious. Slowly, I started walking towards the man. As I closed the distance, I put my right hand behind my back, grabbing one of my swords. Quickly and quietly, I whispered into my headset, "Sam, patch me into the speaker system."

"Done." A voice said in my headset.

"Over the many years I have served the good of humanity, I accumulated many, many name. The Burning Spirit, Fire Walker, Ghost, The Smokey Mist." My voice was now ringing through the building's speaking system, "However, of all of the names that people have given me, my favorite is Demon." I pulled my semblance into my hand, lighting it on fire.

Slowly, I spread the flames over the entirety of my left arm. I took another step forward, scarring the officer even more.

"And that's because when I fight, they say I have..." I teleported directly behind the officer.

"...the power of a Demon."

The man turned around and swiped downwards at me with a knife, missing terribly. The officer, who miscalculated where I was, swung with a lot of force; so much that he lost his balance and ended up scratching one of Sarah's cheeks.

As the officer started to stand back up, he stole a look at the the person he hit instead of his intended target. He watched as the black stripe in Sarah's hair slowly began to disappear. When he saw this, a shiver went down his spine.

He turned to look me, nearly jumping out of his skin; I had a good feeling I knew why.

As soon as I saw Sarah get hit, I watched my vision begin to fade to red.

* * *

_"I'll be honest, I don't remember much about what happened after that. The next thing I knew, I was back in the Bullhead with Sam, Sarah, and the kid we rescued heading back to the church..._

* * *

"...I have to make sure he doesn't attack you two when he wakes up." I heard myself say when I could finally control myself again.

"Consider it done." Sam said as the Bullhead took off towards Vale.

"Bucky." I said into my mic.

"Yo, what's going on Soap?"

"I need you to get a medical stretcher ready."

"Alright, anything else?" Bucky said after a few seconds.

I thought for a second before I responded. "A band-aid for Sarah, that'll be all."

"Alright see you when you guys get back. Bucky out."

The Bullhead was in the air now a good minute away from the base when a large explosion was heard in the distance.

Sarah gave me a concerned look before turning her attention to the person we rescued.

"Look at his neck." Sarah said.

I did and saw a large scar going across it, "He has no vocal chords." I said,

A voice was heard from the cockpit, Sam's, "Do we know what his name is?"

"His name is Drake, Drake Hemington." I replied without hesitation.

"How do you know?" Sarah asked.

"This is the same kid that was kidnapped four years ago by the White Fang. It's amazing that he's still alive." I said.

"I wonder what they did to him." Sarah thought out loud.

"Let's get him fixed up before we ask him any questions." I responded.

* * *

After Sarah and I finally finished patching up Drake, the only thing left to do was to wake him.

Something that neither Sarah, nor Sam, wanted to do.

When he was finally awake, Drake sat up and looked around, eyes wide all the while. When he realized that he was no longer in the White Fang base, he turned to me.

"I understand your name is Drake?" I said.

Drake nodded.

"Here," I tossed him a scroll, landing in his lap, "type what you want to say. When we patched you up, we saw that your vocal chords were cut out; you should be able to communicate just fine with that. Oh, and before you try to motion that you have no arms, take a look." I said with a grin.

Drake did as he was told and looked shocked to see two full arms where two stubs were not too long ago.

After getting the hang of using the prosthetic arms, he began to type out his story.

Once he finally finished, I read his story.

* * *

**A/N; Finally they are all done! All of the major back story's.**

**Sarah: Now for the hard part, what happens next.**

**Soap: *heavy sigh* Time to start typing again.**

* * *

**Edit: 5-18-2015; I'm finally done rewriting the backstories! I don't think that I'm going to be rewriting any more chapters anytime soon. I have a plot to advance!**

**I will eventually have to come back and do it because some of the chapters have incorrect info regarding my O.C.'s pasts. **

**But that won't be for a while, I need to take a break.**


	6. Ch 5: whom we love,

**A/N: So, I lied, I saw how much cliffhanger bait was being put in front of me as I typed the last portion of the last chapter, and I couldn't refuse.**

**Sarah: So you ended a chapter halfway to do so?**

**Soap: yeah...looking back on it, it wasn't the smartest idea I've ever had. **

**Sarah: kind of like the time when you tried to teleport into the gi-**

**Soap: *places hand over Sarah's mouth* NOBODY NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THAT! *turns to readers* Enjoy the chapter guys.**

* * *

Chapter 5: whom we love,

* * *

**(anytime Drake is talking through his mind, it will be in _italics._ anytime he is typing, which will be rarely other than this chapter, it will be in " ")**

"I want you to try something Drake. Try talking to me through your mind." I said.

Drake raised an eyebrow and stared at me. "Seriously?"

"Just try it."

"Fine."

Even though he couldn't physically speak, I could feel the obscenities being shouted at me through Drake's mind.

"Did it work?" He asked on his scroll after a while.

"Were you cussing me out, saying how stupid the idea was?"

"Yeah, how did you-" He started to type on his scroll.

"Your facial expression gave it away." I said, grinning.

"Oh"

"The reason why I told you to try is because in the event that someone with an aura is no longer able to speak to communicate, a second semblance manifests in order to do so."

"My aura's locked though." Drake said.

I stared at him for a moment before speaking again, "Well, that would have been useful information about 5 minutes ago."

"Would it make a difference if my aura WAS, at one point, unlocked?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, slightly confused.

"While I was prisoner, the White Fang did some sort of spell that re-locked my aura and semblance."

"OK~." I said. "Well, what was your semblance?"

"Ice." Drake typed.

"Hmm," I pondered, "The fact that the White Fang locked your aura, and the fact that you can't speak, is going to be a slight problem. Archaic methods won't work." I said. If I was completely honest, I really didn't like where this was going.

"How is it going to be a slight problem?" Drake typed.

"Archaic methods involve chanting a spell to unlock it, along with a lot of physical effort. The spell also has to be said by the person whose aura is being unlocked." I sighed. "That only leaves one option..." I said, trailing off.

_Which means that someone else will have to unlock your aura for you. _I thought to myself.

"Is there no way to unlock my aura?" Drake typed.

"No. There is. It's just that someone else will have to unlock it for you." I said, somewhat scared for what was to come.

"OK...can you not unlock mine?"

"No. I, personally, cannot. The process involved is literally sharing aura with you in order to unlock it. I, however, will not be able to." I took a breath. "The problem is not in finding someone, that I have...It's just..." I sighed heavily.

"Just what?"

"Tell me Drake, after what the White Fang did to you, do you think that you will be able to trust faunus ever again?"

He thought for a moment before responding. "More than likely; but not soon though. Why?"

"Because the only person with an unlocked aura, is a faunus." I said.

"Why is that a problem?"

"Because having your aura unlocked by someone else bonds you to them. Bonds are the ultimate form of trust."

Drake looked surprised at first. "If I go through with this, will I be able to speak again?"

"Vocally? No, you will never be able to speak again. Telepathically though, yes."

He thought for a moment and then asked, "Would I be able to break the bond at a later date?"

"No, this person would be bonded to you till the day you die." I said.

"You know what? Do it. I want to be able to communicate again."

"Alright." I said, nodding.

* * *

"_Hey Sarah?"_ I called out through our bond.

"_Yeah?"_

"_Drake agreed to let Sam unlock his aura. Do you mind bringing her in?"_

"_Sure, we're on our way."_ She said.

"_Oh. Also tell Bucky to prepare a meal of sorts for Drake. I can tell he's hungry." _I added.

"_Done. Coming in."_ Sarah said after a second.

In a flash of bright blue light, Sarah and Sam teleported into the room, blinding Drake in the process.

Once Drake was able to see again, I told Sam to grab Drake's shoulder and to recite the same spell that she used to unlock her own aura.

"Wait for us to leave the room to start." I said, turning to leave. "Oh, and make sure that you position yourself so that you'll collapse onto the soft bed instead of the hard ground." I said, as Sarah and I were about to leave the room.

"Wait!" She exclaimed. "What's this about collapsing?" She asked, clearly concerned.

I chuckled before explaining, "Unlocking Drake's aura will leave you with very little aura of your own which will cause you to collapse. When you do, I would prefer that you did onto something soft."

"I'm guessing that's what happened to Sarah when she unlocked yours?" Sam asked.

"Yep. Scared the living hell out of me." I said, confirming her suspicions. "Time to begin." I said, finally teleporting Sarah and I out of the room.

* * *

"Are you sure that he'll be able to communicate after this?" Sarah asked over the sound of Sam chanting from the other room.

"Absolutely not, but we can only hope at this point." I said.

After a few minutes, the chanting stopped signaling that Sam was finished.

I stood up and extended a hand to Sarah, "Together?"

"Together, but we're using your semblance. It's not as blinding." Sarah said.

"True. Let's go." I said, activating my semblance.

* * *

When we reappeared next to Drake's bed, neither Sarah nor myself was expecting what we saw.

Drake was rubbing the back of a passed out Sam, who was on his lap, while trying to reach for his scroll.

"Want us to move her off of you?" I asked, after watching him struggle to grab his scroll for a few moments.

Drake's reply was a nonchalant wave of his hand and a shake of his head.

After managing to retrieve the scroll, he typed with one hand, "What exactly did you mean by a bond will be formed'?"

I thought for a moment before answering. "Our bond," I motioned Sarah and I, "allows us to share our thoughts and semblances. However, as far as we're aware, this was only due to the special circumstance that was Sarah's aura being unlocked from before she could remember which allowed plenty of time for her aura to develop." I said.

"But to answer your question, a bond is a union of two or more things. In this case, by sharing aura with one another you now have a piece of Sam's aura and Sam has a piece of your aura. This is what forms a bond. This way of unlocking someone's aura is the ultimate demonstration of trust between two people." I took a breath.

"With you being so willing to do so with Sam after just meeting her says a lot about you Drake. Mainly two things, although the second is more evident than the first. One, it says that the trust wound that the White Fang caused wasn't as deep as I originally thought." I stopped to breath and let Drake process all that he had just been told.

"What is the second thing, and how is it more evident than the other?" He typed into his scroll.

"Well, judging from how you don't mind Sam collapsing on top of you, how affectionately you were rubbing her back when we came in, and how you didn't cease rubbing her back to type on your scroll; it would be my best guess that you are somewhat attracted to Sam." I reasoned.

"You got all of that from me rubbing her back?" Drake asked.

"Yes he did. It seems that he's a better student than I thought." Sarah said proudly.

"Well, I had an excellent teacher." I said, smiling at her.

"Well, am I wrong?" I asked shifting my attention back to Drake.

"I guess you could say that I'm a little attracted to her."

"Now that you two are bonded together, your feelings for her will only grow deeper as time passes; be sure that you treat her right." Sarah said, giving Drake a look that sent chills down his spine.

Drake vigorously shook his head in confirmation.

"Alright. First things first, let's see if you can use your previous semblance." I said.

"I have a question first." Drake typed.

"What would that be?" Sarah said.

"The last time I was able to use my semblance, was only after I had infused my arms with Ice Dust."

"That explains how you were able to endure so much torture from the White Fang." Sarah said.

"Indeed it does." I confirmed.

"How am I going to use my semblance if there is no dust in my arms for it to use?" Drake asked.

Since I was the one who designed and built his new arms, I spoke up.

"I designed those arms with a couple of built-in features. One of them being that both of the arms were built with a special type of metal alloy made by combining hardened steel with every type of dust currently known." I explained.

Drake looked like he just barely understood my explanation. To be honest though, I didn't blame him; unless you are familiar with working with Dust, you aren't going to grasp new concepts very easily.

"You should be able to use your previous semblance as you were before with no problems. However, since it has been a little while, let's start with something simple. You see that glass of water next to you?" I asked.

Drake nodded.

"Grab it with your right hand and using your semblance, freeze it."

Drake did what he was told, grabbing the glass, and without much thought, froze the water inside.

"Good. Now for the hard part, using your second semblance. Try to talk to me." I told him.

"How?" Drake typed.

"Look at me and imagine that you're in a room with only me, now within your mind think whatever you want to say." I instructed.

"I don't think it will work, but whatever. Here goes nothing." He typed before setting the scroll down on the table beside his bed. As Drake did as he was told, a question entered his mind, _"How the hell would you know how to do this?"_

_How do you know how to do this?"_ I heard a voice say within my head. The voice was much deeper than Sarah's and a little deeper than my own.

"I already told you Drake. The special circumstances that my bond was formed with Sarah allows us to share thoughts, and I do the same thing to talk to her through our bond." I replied, surprising both Drake and Sarah.

"It worked?" Sarah asked, in a state of disbelief.

"Yup." I said as I shifted my attention back to Drake, "Now instead of just me, open up your mind to everyone in the room except to Sam. I don't want to wake her yet."

_"OK. Sarah, Soap, can you both hear me?"_ Drake asked after a moment.

Sarah and I both nodded confirming that we had.

"I thought your voice would be higher than Soap's since you're younger than him." Sarah said somewhat surprised.

_"Is that a bad thing?"_ Drake asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not at all, just thought I'd point it out." Sarah replied.

It was at this point that Sam woke up, surprised that she was in the same position that she collapsed into.

"Did it work?" She asked after waking up. She tried to remove herself from Drake's lap but found that she didn't have enough strength to do so.

After I helped her into a sitting position on the bed, I answered her, "Well...how about we let the man in question answer himself?"

_"Sam, are you alright?" _Drake asked.

"I'm fine, just a little tir-" She said, realizing that the voice wasn't coming from me. "Who said that?" She asked as she looked around for the voice's source.

I just smiled at her and pointed at the person laying in the bed beside her.

Drake smiled and gave a polite wave, _"Hello Sam."_

Sam nearly fainted upon hearing his words.

* * *

After a couple of minutes, there was knock at the door.

"Bacon wrapped cheeseburger made to order." said a voice on the other side.

"Coming Bucky." I said opening the door.

I stepped out of the way to let him through. When Drake had the plate in his hands, I swear he was drooling.

"Sorry it's not as good as it could be. I rushed making it so you didn't have to wait a while." Bucky said.

Drake, hearing Bucky's comment, apprehensively took a bite. Drake's facial expression changed from one of nervousness to one of extreme delight. _"If this isn't as good as what you normally make, I can't wait for you to make something that isn't rushed."_

"Is that a complement or an insult?" Bucky asked.

_"That is absolutely a __complement. I haven't had real food in almost four years and I am very happy that this is the first."_

"Sweet! I'll see you guys in a bit, I'm going to get dinner ready." He said as he walked out the door.

In unison, everyone said goodbye.

* * *

_"Soap."_

"Yes?"

_"You said that these arms were designed with a couple built-in features, however you only mentioned one."_

"That's correct. I assume that you want to know what the others are?"

_"Yup."_

"Then let's go the gym where there's some decent room to move first." I said as I nodded to Sarah.

Sarah understood exactly what I was doing and helped Sam to her feet and promptly teleported to the gym with Sam in tow.

With the girls now gone, I helped Drake to his feet. His first few steps were a little shaky but after a few minutes he was able to walk on his own. After he was, I teleported us to the gym where Sam and Sarah were waiting.

Once we were there, I started on the details of Drake's new arms. "Your arms were designed with the possibility that you infused yourself with Dust, thus they were both made with a Dust based steel alloy. You should be able to use your semblance with either arm. That's the basic feature of them, but everything beyond that is controlled with your mind.

"Built into the left forearm is a holo-projector that works the same as a scroll being that it responds to touch. It also has the added feature of being able to type on it without the need to physically touch it.

"Since nearly everyone has their lives online - with the exception of myself, Sam, and Sarah - you will be able to profile people. It's also able to hack into anything that is connected to the net. If you want lessons on how to do more advanced things with it, ask either myself or Sarah later and we'll teach you whatever you want to know. That's it for features on the left arm, now for your right arm.

"Since almost all of your right arm is prosthetic, it is much, much stronger allowing for a stronger version of your semblance to be used. Like I said earlier, you can use your semblance with either arm, but your right arm will be a lot stronger. Both can detach the hands and replace them with something else, for instance, this sword." I said tossing Drake a sword. "You can store that inside your right forearm. That should be everything. Any questions?"

_"Why did you do this?"_

"What do you mean?" I asked.

_"Why rescue me? Why help me be able to talk again? Just, why?"_

_"Sarah, take Sam to the sanctuary. I'll be there with Drake in a second."_ I told her quietly.

* * *

I walked up to Drake, grabbed his shoulder and teleported us to the largest room in the church. "Drake, I want you to look at the wall above me and tell me what you see."

_"A large cross. What does that have to do with anything?"_

"Everything." I said.

_"What do you mean?"_

"That symbol is one of the reasons why I bought this place. Do you know what the cross is symbolic of?"

Drake shook his head

"The cross is the symbol of a second chance. After I nearly died as a kid, I found this on the body of my father." I saidas I pulled out my necklace. "The cross is representative of a religion that has long since died. My parents were the last of it's followers and while I have abandoned that way of life as a religion long ago; it's morals and way of living form the very base of who I am. I believe in second chances, I got mine in the form of Bucky, when his car stopped beside me while I was walking to Vale. It is because of Bucky that I am alive today. It is because of him that I believe in second chances and why I offer others the same chance."

After I finished, silence filled the room. Drake was stunned. Even Sarah was stunned, even she didn't know why I bought the church. After what seemed like an eternity, I spoke again, "So Drake, what do you say?"

_"About what?"_

"If I could offer you a second chance at life, would you take the offer?"

_"Yes."_

"Good, let's begin then." I said.

* * *

**A/N: It took nearly three days to type, but I did it.**

**Sarah: How many times did you re-think and re-phrase that part about bonds?**

**Soap: Too many times. But hey, now we get to a character that wasn't made by me.**

**Sarah: How long do you think that's going to take?**

**Soap: *sigh* Let's just start typing.**

* * *

**Edit 11-28-2016: Reworded some parts and transitioned from 3rd to 1st person.**


	7. Ch 6: and the ones

**A/N: I do have to say that the last chapter was probably the hardest I've typed so far, mainly because it was completely unplanned past the first two scenes.**

**Drake: **_**"Does that mean that this chapter is also unplanned?"**_

**Soap: Actually, I have a slight idea as to where this chapter is going. Without giving any spoilers, we're going to be introducing another OC. Let's get started!**

* * *

Chapter 6: and the ones

* * *

_"What happened after Drake joined you guys?"_

_"What happened was Drake became a flirt. They became so close that, before long they started calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend."_

_"Which only allowed me to tease Sam even more."_

_"Yes Sarah, I'm sure even John knows how much of troublemaker and prankster you are."_

_"Yes, I'm aware. What happened after that?"_

_"After that, I got a call from Vale Police Chief John Anderson..._

* * *

"Hello?" I said groggily into my scroll, as it was early in the morning.

"Soap, It's Anderson." The voice on the other end said.

I immediately woke up when I heard the name.

Vale Police Chief John Anderson was an old friend of mine and the very guy who gave me my first bounty mission. He was also the only man that, if he wanted to, could put me behind bars for multiple accounts of mass identity theft. **(the very reason why Soap is Remnant's youngest millionaire)** Because of this, I was more than willing to do whatever dirty work the Chief had for me.

"Hey Chief. What can I do for you?"

"I have a favor to ask of you." The police chief said.

"That being?" I asked.

"All of my men are currently tied up around town investigating last night's dust robbery..."

_'That makes number 17 in the last month.' _I thought to myself

"...and I need someone to check out a case of reported homicide downtown."

"Same report format as the bounties?"

"That would be correct."

"Sure. I can do that for you, but you owe me one." I said.

"The usual?" The chief asked.

"Actually no, I'm good on Dust rounds for the time being. I have something else in mind though."

"Which would be?"

"All the info you have on these dust robberies that have been happening recently, including the information that you find involving last night's."

"Sure. Though if you don't mind me asking, why?" The chief asked.

"These robberies are happening too frequently to be random; I want to take my own look into the things going on."

"Alright, that's fine by me. I'll be sure to send you those details along with anything else that develops."

"Then I'll catch you later." I said as I started to close my scroll.

"Oh, one more thing."

I looked back into the scroll, "Yeah?"

"You remember Summer?" The chief asked.

"Summer Rose? Of course I remember her; she was one of the greatest huntresses' this world has ever known. One that I had the privilege to know personally; not to mention the fact that I worked with her a couple of times getting bounties. So yeah, I remember her, why do you ask? I already know that she died a few years ago."

"Her daughter stopped last night's dust robbery and was offered a spot at Beacon." The chief said, taking me by surprise.

"I remember he. Fun-loving, carefree, and refused to let the world break her belief in fairy tales and happy endings. She was a good kid. If I remember correctly, she's three years younger than me. What was her name again?"

"Ruby Rose."

When I heard her name, I remembered something I had forgotten about.

The day Summer died, I was out on a mission with her. As she was dying, she made me promise her something, _"Watch over her when I no longer can." _

"Huh. I'll look into that homicide case for you." I said, now lost in thought.

"Great, I'm sending you the details now. And thanks." The chief said.

"No problem." I said, ending the call.

Upon the call ending, I received the details the chief promised.

As I made my way towards the kitchen, I called the others to meet me there.

Since I was the first one there, I began looking through the info. To be honest, I wasn't really all that interested in it until I saw the address.

I stared at the address for a moment. It was the same as the shop where I bought my cars.

* * *

"Hey Soap."

"Hey Sarah. Hey Bucky. Where are Sam and Drake?"

"They should be right behind us." Bucky said.

Within a couple of minutes Sam and Drake arrived, allowing me to brief them on what was going to happen.

"Alright, now we can see if all that training has paid off yet." I said, concluding the brief. "Bucky, hold down the fort, we'll be back before one."

"No problemo, dude." Bucky said, walking away.

_"Is there any possibility that there will be any fighting during this mission?"_

"I have no idea Drake. More than likely there won't be, but anything's possible."

"How are we going to get there? The city's a little to dense to fly a bullhead in there." Sam brought up.

"I didn't think about that. Hmm, I guess we'll have to drive there."

_"There is no way that I'm sitting in a tight, cramped car with 3 other people."_

"I figured as much, which is why I was going to suggest that we take 2 cars. Sarah and I will drive. Drake, you're with me." I said.

Everyone nodded in agreement and made their way to the garage.

* * *

"We're here." I said, pulling over to the side of the road.

Stepping out of the car, I saw that there was a man sitting on the curb with his head in his hands and appeared to be crying. At the sound of the second car approaching, he looked up.

"Soap!" The man said, standing to greet the new arrivals.

"Hey Morgoth, how's it been?" I asked, as I shook the man's massive hands. In comparison to myself, Morgoth was a giant. He had a mohawk with short black hair on his head with a dark blue stripe where the actual mohawk part of his hair was. His naturally blood red eyes mad an angry Sarah look tame. He also had a navy blue gotee. As far as clothes went, he had black jeans, spiked black leather boots, a dark blue v-neck on, with a black leather jacket to finish off his outfit. Not to mention the sleeve of tattoos that he had on his arms. All in all, he looked like someone you did not want to get angry.

"Aside from what happened today, all's been well." He looked over to the cars that we arrived in, "I see you're taking good care of my cars."

"Why wouldn't I? But of course I've had some help."

"Mind if I ask who?" The beast of a man asked, genuinely curious as to who has been maintaining his cars.

"Not at all. Believe it or not, Sam here is a motor head like yourself." I said pointing towards the hawk faunus,"and well...let's just say she did more than just improve my gas mileage."

"I'm impressed to say the least."

"Now to get to the business at hand, I trust you know why I'm here?" I asked.

I put my hand in the air signaling to the others that they should start looking around the area.

"I do, and I'll save you the interrogation session. I was the one who committed the crime." The man said, lowering his head in shame.

"Is that so?" I asked.

"Yes, I take it you want a recount of what happened?" Morgoth asked.

"Yup." I said as I took a seat on the curb next to him. I motioned for Drake and Sam to do the same. Sarah, however, continued to look around. "Alright Morgoth, begin your story."

"I killed him out of rage. When I found out that one of my cars had been stolen, he just happened to be the closest thing for me to hit."

"What did you hit him with?" I asked.

"You know what my weapons are right?" He asked.

"Sadly, no. You never told me what they were."

"Well my weapons are my tattoos. When I activate them, they slide down my arms to my wrists and extend to form a sort of make-shift swords. I call them, Sinners's Remorse." He said as he demonstrated this by activating and deactivating his weapons.

"I take it you infused yourself with dust?" I asked.

"It wasn't by choice." Morgoth replied, nodding.

"Do tell."

"A long time ago, I was backed into a corner by a couple grimm. If I hadn't infused my with the burn dust I had at the time, I would have died. My tattoos were where the dust found an outlet. This is the result; I was turned into a human tank."

"A human tank?" I asked.

"Yes, especially if I were to get mad and let's just hope you never have to see that."

Silence engulfed the area until Sarah was the one who spoke.

"So Morgoth, did you kill this man?" Sarah asked looking through the footage from the security cameras on her scroll.

"Yes." He said with his head in his hands awaiting for a pair of handcuff to be slapped onto his wrists, but they never came.

"Really? Because I don't think you did. Based on the evidence provided by the security footage, you didn't kill this man. In fact, you were on the other side of your shop when this man killed himself." Sarah said, now looking at me, wordlessly communicating with me.

"What?" Morgoth said shocked and confused at the same time.

"Yes, there's nothing here that would allow us to even accuse you, not to mention arrest you, of killing this man." Sarah said, giving a subtle wink, making sure he saw it.

"Wha-" He started to say but stopped, getting the hint, "I don't know how to thank you for this."

"Well..." Soap began, "three things. One, give Sam," Soap pointed at Sam, "some tips and proper tools for tinkering with my cars."

"I can do that. What else?"

"Two, I have an idea for a project that I will need your help on. I'll send you a blueprint later.

"Alright, what's the third?"

"I fear that in the coming years, a war will erupt. If or when it does, I'll be needing you."

"I don't know what to say." He said.

_"Thanks would be nice." _Morgoth looked around, not sure who just spoke.

"Drake, if you're going to make such comments, make sure that you're not broadcasting them to everyone in sight," Sam said.

_"Sorry, I'm still getting used to that."_

"I'm so sorry about that, he does this sometimes." Sam said, referring to her boyfriend.

Morgoth just laughed. Standing up, he said, "Don't worry about it. Now, how about those tools and tips?"

Eagerly Sam nodded her head and followed Morgoth into his shop, all the while, Drake was standing outside, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head as he watched his girlfriend turn into a kid in a candy shop.

_"You know. Sometimes I wonder why I love her." _Drake said.

"I HEARD THAT!" was all that could be heard form inside the shop while Drake and Sarah laughed.

I, on the other hand was busy. Not with the homicide report, that had been completed and sent off a while ago. I was looking over the info that Chief Anderson had sent me on the dust robberies. The info I received was detailed but still missed a few pieces. I was going to have to call the Headmasters office at Beacon and ask for a favor.

The plan was simple. So why did I feel like something at Beacon would complicate things?

* * *

**A/N: Well...that chapter took on a life of it's own.**

**Sarah: Yeah it did, didn't it?**

**Soap: To put it simply, I didn't intend on dragging in some cannon characters and events, however that's what came to be. Sarah, remind me to update the summary later.**

**Sarah: Sure. How did you originally want this chapter to look like?**

**Soap: I was going to have us take Morgoth in and claim a place in my house, along with seeing how he killed that unnamed guy from his point of view. All of what happened in the last half of the chapter, wasn't even planned. **I had no idea that I had written it until I read the whole chapter back over,** but I digress. If you have any questions/feedback/OC's/or whatnot, either send me a P.M. or leave a review with said info and I'll get back to you within the day. Time to get some sleep.**

* * *

**Edit 11-28-2016: Added and removed a few details and transfered from 3rd to 1st person.**


	8. Ch 7: who love us

****A/N: So...*scratches back of head*...remember how in the summary it says that there is a _slight _chance that some of the canon characters would show up?****

****Sarah: *slowly nods head* Yeah?****

****Soap: Well...they're going to show up, and become a major part of the coming story.****

****Sarah: *heavy sigh*****

****Soap: On the bright side, I actually know where I am going with this story...****

****Sarah: Really? ****

****Soap: ... for the next 3 chapters.****

* * *

Chapter 7: who love us

* * *

The next morning, now back at the church, Soap managed to get into contact with the only man in Vale that knew more about the White Fang than he did.

"Hello?" The man asked.

"Hello. I've been told that you're the man to go to for info regarding the WF." Soap said into his scroll.

The man on the other end chuckled and said, "Well that depends on who's asking. Might I ask to see who you are?"

"Sure," Soap replied, turning on his scroll's camera.

"Who is this?" the man asked, sounding somewhat confused, a few seconds after Soap's face appeared on the scroll.

Soap smiled, "Facial recognition software not working? Heh. That doesn't surprise me, considering that I've been _dead_ for 13 years. But to answer your question, my name is Soap. Perhaps you've heard of me?" He asked.

"I've never heard of any Soap. What kind of name is Soap?" the man asked.

"Then perhaps you've heard of my other name? Demon?"

The man's face drained itself of any and all color, "The bounty hunter?" He asked.

"Yes Ozpin, the bounty hunter; Oh and don't worry, I'm not after you. I would never take a bounty on someone who has done nothing wrong." Soap said.

Ozpin visibly became very relaxed, "OK, good. What brings you to be calling me at this hour?"

"I need information."

"On?"

"The White Fang. I need to know why they're targeting Dust shops."

Hearing this, Ozpin was silent for a while, seemingly lost in thought. After a minute, he spoke again, "I do have info on the WF, but it will not be cheap."

"Name your price." Soap said.

Ozpin's face signified that he was, once again, lost in thought.

"Hmm. Actually, I have something else in mind." replied Ozpin.

"Do tell." Soap said, intrigued.

"I want you to attend my school's initiation and...spice things up."

"Seriously?" Soap asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, and I also ask that you bring your counterpart." Ozpin said with a very serious face.

"Sarah?" Soap asked, wondering how he knew about her.

"Yes. I already know about her and her past, so don't try to hide anything from me. She has taken a few high priority contracts from me in the past."

"Fair enough. I accept your terms." Soap said about to end the call. "But don't expect me to stick around after initiation."

"I don't expect you to. Who knows what will make you want to stay." Ozpin said as Soap ended the call.

_What did he mean by that? Oh well. More things for me to figure out later. _He thought to himself.

* * *

Soap made his way to the sanctuary from the roof, messaging Sarah on the way down for her to meet him there.

"Hey Soap." Sarah said, as Soap walked into the room.

"Hey Sarah." he paused, "What do you know about the WF and the dust robberies that have been happening recently?"

"Not much other than that Torchwick guy is apparently working with them." Sarah replied, "Why?"

"Because I just arranged a meeting with the Headmaster of Beacon for information on them and their motives. I need you to come with."

"Why do you need me?" Sarah asked.

"Because his price for the info I need, was for us to attend initiation and 'spice things up'."

"Why not?" She smiled, "It's been a while since I killed a Grimm anyways."

"Yes it has. Let's go have some fun. The next airship leaves in 20, at 9:30. I've got to grab something first though, so go on ahead of me." Soap said.

"Meet you there." Sarah said, vanishing from in front of him.

* * *

~Sarah P.O.V.

Sarah was leaning against the side of the airship waiting for Soap to show when a brutish looking boy with brown hair, by the looks of it 16 or 17, started walking up the ramp towards the airship. It looked to Sarah that he had a large mace as a weapon and was wearing heavy grey armor accented and outlined with a dull yellow color, in the center of the chest-piece was an bird insignia. Sarah had only seen the boy for nearly 30 seconds, but she could already tell that she didn't like him, however, she really didn't know why. Without giving it much thought as to why, she put her pink hood over her head in a way so that her light pink cat ears were hidden from him. As he drew closer, she prepared the larger of her pipes (the pipe that she used as a shotgun) in case he confronted her.

With absolute perfect timing, Soap appeared in front of Sarah, blocking her from view of the large boy. With catastrophe **(no pun was originally intended, but take it for what it's worth)** averted, she looked at Soap and noticed something different about him. His hood was down, which never happened in public, and his hair was light brown instead of it's usual white with a red and black streak. Wondering why he changed his hair color, she asked, "What did you do to your hair?"

He smiled, "Physically: nothing. Appearance wise: well...it is now light brown."

Sarah nodded. "I see that. But what did you do to make it that way?" She asked, while putting away here weapon without Soap noticing.

* * *

~Soap P.O.V.

"But what did you do to make it look that way?"

Soap held up an object that Sarah was unfamiliar with. Looking the object over for a minute, still unable to figure out what it was, she looked at him questioningly, "I built a disguise device." He said with a smile.

"For only your hair?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Did you not notice that the scars on my forehead, chin and right cheek** (not his ass, ya pervs!)** were gone as well?"

Looking over his face, she realized he was right. She glanced at her watch, noticing the time, she said, "We should probably board, they leave in 3 minutes."

"That we should. Let's go." Soap said, walking towards the entrance.

* * *

Once inside, Sarah asked Soap why he changed the appearance of his face. Soap's reply was that he had been a bounty hunter for over six years before he met Sarah, the best in the world. Because of this, Soap had made himself the unofficial most wanted bounty hunter in the world, meaning that many people wanted him dead.

"I'd just rather be safe than sorry on this one." He said.

Sarah gave a slight chuckle,"Fair enough." She looked around the airship for a second,"Well seeing that we are about to attend a school meant to train future Huntsman and Huntresses, we should probably look around and see who we're up against."

"I agree. No audible communication, it would be a tactical disadvantage if other people knew that we were working together." He said.

She nodded, _"I take it we should split up?"_

_"Yup."_

* * *

The couple split up, Soap taking the upper level, Sarah taking the lower.

Sarah's level was uneventful, so she just gathered any intel she could without looking suspicious.

Soap on the other hand ran into something, literally. Soap didn't see what he was running into until it was too late. _What is with me running into people?_

"Sorry about that." Soap said. Now on the floor, Soap noticed that someone was offering a hand to help him up, which he gladly accepted.

"Hey, don't worry about it." a friendly feminine voice said.

"Thanks for the he-" He started to say, stopping as he was stared down by eyes that were a color Soap hadn't seen in nearly five years.

_Silver. Her eyes are silver. Could this be Summer's daughter? _Soap thought to himself.

"Are you alright?" the girl asked, now feeling a little awkward.

Now out of his daze, Soap replied, "Oh, sorry about that. Your eyes reminded me of an old friend. And to answer your question: Yeah, I'm alright."

He stepped back to get a better look at the person he ran into. She was short. Well, short compared to Soap. She was wearing a black dress/skirt with red trimmings and over that she was had a red cloak with a hood. As he saw before, she had very prominent silver eyes underneath a head of black hair with dark red highlights on the tips.

Another girl approached them, however, this one her recognized as Summer's step-daughter: Yang Xiao Long. Yang asked him, "You sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine. But I have to go, bye." Soap said quickly, not wanting to give them anything that they could use to find out who he was, he used his semblance to vanish in to an empty seat on the other side of the room, that was unseen by the girls, but within earshot of Soap.

"Well, that was odd." said the younger of the two girls.

* * *

Now a safe distance away from them, Soap was thinking about the younger girl.

_Could that really be Summer's daughter? It has to be. I've never seen anyone else that had such prominent silver eyes, plus I remember that her daughter did have eyes the same color. That's definitely her. What was her name again? Ruby, yeah Ruby, that's her name. Didn't she have a sister? Yeah, she did, her name was...Yang. Didn't she go by a different last name though? Ughh, so many questions that need answers._

Soap continued to recover more lost memories, the airship docking going unnoticed to him, until a hand grabbed his shoulder.

* * *

When Sarah found him, he was sitting in a seat next to a window and looked as if he had seen a ghost, which was almost true.

She grabbed his shoulder which effectively brought him back to reality. "You alright Soap?" She asked.

"Hmm, oh, yeah I'm fine. Though I just ran into the daughter of an old friend." Soap said.

"Don't tell me you're thinking about going after her." She said, seeing this as a chance to tease her boyfriend.

"Pftt. Please, there is no one in this world that rivals you." He said.

She smiled, "Good. We should probably get going." She said, taking a look around the airship noticing that it was nearly empty.

"Yeah." He said. Standing up, he took her hand and proceeded towards the exit.

* * *

While they were still inside the unusually hot airship waiting to exit, Sarah put down her hood to alleviate some of the excess heat. Once off the airship, she spotted a familiar face looking straight at her, immediately she wished that she left her hood on. The face noticed her, and gave an evil smile that made her shudder. The figure slowly made their way through the crowd towards her. Soap, noticing the shudder, stopped at the nearest bench to ask Sarah what was wrong. He didn't have to wait long for his answer.

The man approached Soap, who was standing in front of Sarah, and introduced himself as Cardin Winchester.

"Hello, my name's Soap. Before you ask, yes that is my real name."

"No problem. Do you know that piece of trash behind you?" Cardin asked, his words striking a chord with Soap.

"Who my girlfriend? Yes, I know her. Why?"

"Why are you dating a freak of nature?" Cardin asked, however, this only proceeded to make Soap mad.

"Let me ask you a question Cardin, do you know who I am?" Soap asked.

Cardin looked Soap over for a few seconds, "No, I've never seen or heard of you before in my life."

Soap turned off his disguise, which made Cardin slightly jump, but stood his ground, "How about now?"

"Nope." Cardin said.

"Let me give you a hint, who is the most infamous bounty hunter in all of Remnant?"

"That Demon guy, But you're not him. You don't look anything like him, his hair is supposed to be pure black, after all, there's a..." Soap cut him off.

"...a reason why they call him a Demon. Allow me to show you why they call me a demon." Soap's hair changed to pure black and his semblance flared giving him the appearance that he was on fire or, as others described him, a Demon.

"I am the one and only Demon." Soap said calmly, his voice not matching his appearance whatsoever, "But to answer your question Cardin, I date her because I love her."

Sarah started feeding him her semblance, giving Soap the look of being on fire and being electrocuted at the same time. Cardin froze with fear.

"If you do or say anything to Sarah that is discriminating towards her or her race, I will not hesitate to kill you." Soap said, his voice sounding demonic.

"Do you understand Cardin?" Soap said calmly.

No response. Cardin just stood there like an idiot.

Soap tried again, only this time much louder, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

Cardin shook his head quickly up and down, indicating that he did.

"Good. Now get out of my sight. People like you disgust me." Soap said with malice in his voice.

After Cardin ran away, Soap got control of his aura and calmed down enough to where his hair changed back to it's usual white with the normal streak of red and black.

"Thank you Soap. I had a bad feeling about him when I saw him boarding the airship."

"No problem Sarah, that's what boyfriends are for, right?" Soap asked.

Sarah smiled and gave Soap a kiss.

"Let's go find out where we're going to sleep tonight." Soap said, reengaging his disguise.

* * *

Later in the day, after the opening ceremony, the couple found their way to the ballroom where all the first years were going to be staying during the first night. Naturally, Soap was uncomfortable being around so many people that he didn't trust,** (Soap tends to trust fanus more readily than his own race which is cause of his past, however, he does trust authority hence why he trusts Ozpin)** so they went to the roof where they could hopefully get some rest. However, they were being followed by a certain busty blonde.

On the roof, Sarah and Soap were on the edge of the building leaning against a wall and staring at the stars, all the while listening to the fail that was a golden brawler trying to sneak up the stairs. **(just a side note, this happens after the fight Ruby has with Yang while they were talking with Blake in the ballroom)**

Without so much as turning around Soap called out the wanna be ninja, knowing very well who it was, "Yang, you can stop trying to be sneaky now. You're failing at it horribly. If you want to talk, then come over, sit down, and let's talk."

Yang, surprised that they were able to hear her, accepted the invitation. Sitting down next to Soap, she opened her mouth to how they heard her when he cut her off, "The answer to the question that you are about to ask is that she," pointing to Sarah, "is a cat faunas and heard you as soon as you started walking up the staircase to follow us."

It made sense, so she asked another question, "I don't know your name, yet you know mine. How?" Yang said.

Now sitting straight up, Soap turned to Yang, "Her name," deciding to introduce Sarah first, "is Sarah. She is my girlfriend and my partner. My name...is Soap. And before you ask, yes, that really is my name."

"OK, that answers one of my questions, but I still don't know how you knew my name." Yang said.

Soap let out a heavy sigh, "Do I look at all familiar to you?" She looked him over for a second and shook her head no. Soap realized that he still had his disguise on and turned the machine off, holding it up where Yang could see it when he did. With the gadget now off, he asked her again, "Do I look familiar to you?"

"Yeah, you do actually. Though I don't remember where from or when."

Soap gave a soft chuckle, "Nor would I expect you to; after all, you were only 11 when I last saw you and it's been 6 years since then."

Yang looked surprised at this, "How old are you now?"

"18."

"So that would make you 12 when you last saw me, correct?"

"Spot on, do you remember me now?" Soap asked again.

"I sort of remember the first time we met, though I can't remember why."

Soap smiled softly but instantly saddened, "When I was only five, some...events happened that forced me to mature very quickly." Yang opened her mouth to ask what those events were, but was, again, quickly shut down by Soap, "Events that I do not want to relive nor retell anytime soon, but these events left me without a home and without a family. So, I headed to Vale, and purchased myself a home. I stayed there for the next six years, until I became exceedingly bored. So, at the age of 7, I became a bounty hunter. However, I knew Summer since I was six. Around the age of 11, I met you."

"How do I know your telling the truth that you knew my mom?" Yang said, not sure whether to believe Soap or not.

Soap recalled Summer's favorite poem, _The Last Rose Of Summer_, and recited a few lines around her favorite line, "Thus kindly I scatter, Thy leaves o'er the bed, Where thy mates of the garden, Lie scentless and dead." Yang looked stunned.

"Believe me now?"

"I believe you." Yang said, after she did, she realized something, "Earlier today, on the airship, when you told my sister that her eyes reminded you of an old friend, you were talking about Summer, weren't you?"

Soap nodded his head, "While that was the reason that I started staring in the first place, that wasn't the reason why I continued to stare."

"Then why did you?" Yang asked.

Soap seemed to become incredibly saddened by Yang asking this, as it brought up some unpleasant memories. Sarah sensed his discomfort and pulled him into a comforting hug, "You know you don't have to continue if you don't want to." Sarah reminded him.

Yang agreed with Sarah, saying, "Your girlfriend's right Soap. I can tell that this is rather painful for you to talk about. You don't have to continue if you don't want to."

Soap, slightly regaining his composure, pulled out of Sarah's hug and said, "No, Yang deserves to know. It was her mother after all." He turned to Yang, "Do you remember the day that Summer died?"

Yang nodded, "Yes. Very clearly actually."

"Well...I was with her when she passed." Soap said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I watched her die." Soap said forcefully, if not angrily.

To Yang and Soap, time seemed to slow to a stop. "If I had the knowledge and abilities that I have now, I would have been able to save her, however, I did not. She died in my arms while I was doing all I could to stop her from leaving life. Right before she passed, Summer made me promise her something."

Yang now on the verge of crying, yet managing not to, she asked, "What did she make you promise?"

"She made me promise that I would do all that I could to keep Ruby safe in the coming war with the darkness. Since she no longer could. I told her that I would. She said 'I know you will' and then she stopped breathing." He stopped for a second to wipe the tears from his eyes, "I fully intend to keep that promise. Though I could never figure out what she meant by 'the coming war with the darkness'."

"That's just like her, giving people riddles in dire situations and never giving an answer." Yang said. "Do you know who buried her? My family could never figure that out, along with who carved her favorite line of her favorite poem into her tombstone."

"I do. In fact, you could say that he was very close friend of mine. Though I haven't seen him nor heard from him since she died."

"Well who is it? My family would like to thank him."

"I'll leave that to you to figure out. However, since I know you are going to pout and won't leave me alone until I tell you something, I will tell you this: he was a true friend to both Summer and myself, always finding a way to cheer us up when we were down. And it was because of him that Summer and I became friends."

Try as she might, Yang couldn't get any more info from Soap, who argued that Yang had a long day ahead of her and that she should get some sleep. Realizing that he was right, Yang gave up and headed to bed.

* * *

5 minutes after Yang left, Sarah broke the silence. "Soap?" She asked.

"Hmm?"

"When did you plan on telling me?"

"Tell you what?"

"What your real name was?" Sarah asked him. "I know that you didn't always go by Soap. I also know that you were talking about yourself when you said 'it was because of him that Summer and I became friends.' I'm not stupid, so don't even try to say it wasn't you."

He smiled, "To be fair, I was wondering how long it would be till you found out. As for my name, Summer's the one who gave me the name 'Soap'. Summer was more than just a friend to me, she became family to me, so I decided to honor her like family. I was the one who buried Summer and who carved her favorite line of her favorite poem into her headstone. It was the last thing I could do for her." Soap began to laugh, "It's funny. Bucky's the only one who might still be able to remember my real name, but I doubt that he does."

"What about Yang and Ruby?" Sarah asked.

"What about them?"

"Do they know what your real name is?"

"Yang for sure has heard my name, though she might not remember it. The first time I met her, I introduced myself with my real name. However, Summer told her to call me Soap and the name stuck. Ruby only ever knew me as Soap, so she doesn't know."

"One more thing," Soap looked to her, "what do you think Summer meant by 'the war with the darkness'?"

"To be honest, I don't really know. All I hope, though, is that my fears aren't realized."

"What are your fears?"

"I say fears, plural, but to be honest, it's my only fear. It's not dying if you were wondering."

"You're not afraid to die?" Sarah said, raising an eyebrow.

Soap gave a soft laugh, "Nah. I know it's stupid to not be afraid of dying, but after happened when I was five, I was no longer afraid of dying. Now, I will willingly attack death head on if it means others will live." Sarah looked concerned, he gave her a comforting hug, "The only thing I fear, is losing the ones I love. Especially if it was for a reason that I could have done something about. I'm afraid of losing Drake, Bucky, and Sam. But above everybody, I'm afraid of losing you." Soap said, pulling her in for a kiss. Pulling his lips away from hers, Soap yawned and leaned back against the wall, "Get comfy, cause we need to get some sleep and I'm NOT going back down stairs." They got up and found a corner that they could sleep in without rolling off the roof. Once they settled, they soon fell asleep.

With the things that Ozpin had in store for them, they needed every bit of rest they could get. Even then, that still might not be enough.

* * *

**A/N: *looks at time* Damn! I cranked that one out pretty quick.**

****Sarah: Well, it helps when you actually plan your chapters in advance, as opposed to just sitting down and typing what ever comes to mind.****

**Soap: Hey! Look how well chapter 1 came out. **

****Sarah: Whatever.****

****Soap: If you guys have any ideas or any questions about the story and where it's heading, please leave a review with said question, I love to hear feedback about my story, good or bad. See you guys next time.****

****Edit: 10-20-14; Removed unnecessary details and added in others. Fixed grammar and made it a little longer.****


	9. Ch 8: back For it

**A/N: There's one thing that still amazes me with this story.**

**Sarah: What's that?**

**Soap: That it has been viewed as many times as it has. And here I was thinking that nobody would like my ideas.**

**Sarah: True. So, what from the show will make it in this chapter?**

**Soap: A couple of things actually, but if you want to see what...*turns to readers*...you'll just have to read the chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 8: back. For it

* * *

Sleep for Soap was hard to find that night, which wasn't all that surprising seeing as how many buried memories came to light when he was talking with Yang. Realizing that sleep was just not going to happen for him, he got up, being careful not to wake Sarah, and went to the cafeteria to grab some grub and a cup of coffee. After he finished, he grabbed himself another cup and got some coffee for Sarah. Sarah liked hers with One cream and two sugars, Soap on the other hand liked his coffee with four sugars and four things of cream, any less tasted black to him. Finishing with his own coffee, he headed back to where they fell asleep last night.

On any other day it would have taken Soap 15 minutes to get up, this time he was prepared. The smell of freshly made coffee did wonders to a fanus' nose, in particular, a cat fanus' nose. Sarah's eyes bolted open the second Soap waved her coffee in front of her face which made Soap laugh.

"What's so funny?" Sarah asked as she took the mug from Soap.

"It usually takes me forever to make you wake you up. And yet, when I wave a steaming hot cup of coffee in front of you, you wake up instantly." Soap replied nearly spilling his own coffee as he sat down next to her and handed her the mug.

"I don't usually sleep on a roof. Anything could have woken me up." She said quickly as she accepted the pipping hot beverage.

"Really?" Soap said, raising an eyebrow. "Then how'd I get the coffee?"

"Becau-" She stopped talked talking and frowned, "I hate you." Sarah said.

"No you don't. I know you love me." Soap said smiling.

"Whatever."

"Come on. Let's see if we can find Ozpin before initiation." Soap said as he stood up and extended a hand to help her up.

Sarah accepted his offer and stood up; the couple then made their way to the stairs leading to the ballroom.

* * *

Being unable to find the headmaster, the couple decided to head towards the locker room to get ready. Out of old habits from being a mercenary, Sarah kept her weapons on her at all times, while Soap, who was still relatively new to having actual weapons other than a gun, put away his weapons for the night. Soap, however, kept his gun on him.

While Soap was retrieving his weapons, he overheard a conversation between Yang and her sister. Yang, surprisingly, was staying calm during the conversation, while her sister, Ruby, sounded like she was having a mid-life crisis. Soap knew better than to listen in on other people's conversations, while being obvious anyways. From what Soap could gather from listening from his locker, Yang was being the big sister she was and was telling Ruby to break out of her shell and make new friends. Ruby would have none of it though, in fact, her exact words were: "I don't need other people to help me grow up. I drink milk." _She still believes that everything is like a fairy tale._ The thought that a girl could remain as innocent as Ruby had for as long as she had made Soap smile. The thought also brought back unpleasant memories of the day that he was forced to grow up, the innocence of living would never be known to him. That day, no matter how hard he tried, would always stay at the forefront of his memory. Silently shedding a tear, he pushed away the memories and left the locker room unwilling to bring back any more.

* * *

The couple arrived a few minutes earlier than the other students, Ozpin was already there waiting for them.

"Morning Soap. Morning Sarah." Ozpin said to them. His assistant, Professor Glenda Goodwitch, stood next to him and nodded at them.

"Morning Ozpin." Soap said, Sarah simply gave him a nod. "Remember when you said that I might find a reason to stay?"

Ozpin nodded.

"Let's just say that I found a reason."

"And?"

"I will stay, but only under a couple of conditions." Soap said.

"Shoot."

"I will stay, however with myself and my team as instructors." Soap said.

Goodwitch scoffed at this, however Ozpin was intrigued. "Go on." His statement granted him a surprised and distraught looking Goodwitch which brought a small smile to Ozpin's lips.

"You need not pay me, I have enough money already. However, I will need rooms for my team. I think three total should do us quite nicely." Said Soap.

"Only three? Teams are made up of four individuals. Also, any instructor or professor of Beacon usually has a room to themselves." Said Ozpin.

"While true, most teams are made up of four people, mine is made up of five. Only one of which needs a separate room; so yes, only three rooms." Soap said.

Ozpin took out his scroll and appeared to type something in. Finishing, he put out his right hand and said, "Welcome to Beacon, Instructor Soap and Instructor Sarah. **("Instructor" because they haven't received proper certification for being Huntsman/Huntresses. In my world, you first need to be a certified Hunter to receive "Professor" status)** I trust that once you have an opportunity, you will bring the remaining three members of your team by my office and introduce them to me. I prefer to know who I am employing." Said Ozpin.

"Absolutely sir." Soap said, nodding his head. One at a time, he and Sarah took the man's hand and shook it.

"Your team will need an official four letter name." He said, his scroll still in his hands, ready to input a name.

Soap thought for a moment when he heard Sarah, "Soap, what about 'BNTY'? Since we are all professional bounty hunters." She suggested.

Soap shrugged, "Why not? Team BNTY it is."

"Very well. Welcome to Beacon's staff, Team BNTY." Ozpin said

* * *

With students now arriving at the cliffs, they were instructed to take spots on what Soap knew to be launch pad. Doing so next to Sarah, who in turn was next to Yang. As soon as Ozpin started giving his instructions, Soap tuned him out for a few moments of quiet and to plan out what he was going to do once he was launched. He stayed this way for a few minutes; it was only when he heard the clicking of the launch pads launching students draw closer that he came back to reality. Cardin, who was next to Soap, was launched next. The clicking stopped when it reached Soap, and Ozpin walked up to him and Sarah.

"Do not grab a relic. Your job is to make sure that nobody dies, so do not intervene unless one hundred percent necessary. After everybody has made it to the forest ruins, report to my office." He said. They nodded.

As Ozpin turned to return to his spot on the edge of the cliff, he stopped and looked back to them over his shoulder and said, "Oh, and make sure that things are interesting to watch this year."

Soap and Sarah smiled in understanding as the clicking started again. Soap was launched shortly after as expected. However, what happened next was something that no one expected. Less than a second after being launched and now 30 feet in the air; Soap vanished from sight and reappeared next to Sarah on her pad. He grabbed her hand and the couple was launched together. Soaring through the air, they activated their semblances' and engulfed themselves in their respective semblances' element, Soap's being smoke and fire while Sarah's was electricity or lightning depending on how you looked at it, allowing them to fly to the ruins and avoid the Grimm altogether. A trick that Soap learned he could do shortly after his semblance was unlocked.

* * *

Knowing very well what they were doing, the couple took up spots on tree branches overlooking the ruins and settled in for a nap, not bothering to look down when they heard Cardin and his crew arrive. Shortly after they had come and gone, Yang and her partner arrived. Her partner had the appearance of a cat with the bow that she had on. Seeing this, Soap wondered if she was a fanus, '_Another question for another time I guess.' _he thought. The pair walked up to the ruins and, without much debate, chose one of the white knight pieces. It was this moment that Soap and his partner decided to jump down. Blake had heard the branches move and stepped out of the way and closer towards the ruins.

Yang had heard something land behind her and, being a huntress in training it had to be instinct, immediately thought it was a Grimm who had gotten the jump on her. With little choice of how her instincts reacted, she deployed her weapons and turned to crush her enemy. Soap, who had been the one to drop directly behind her, was prepared for this. As Yang's fist made contact with his stomach, he teleported only the part that would have been hit to the right which allowed the shotgun blast to pass harmlessly through him. He moved his body back into position when her fist left the area. Yang didn't see this however, she only saw a friend that she had potentially killed stand there with a smug look on his face. Soap, who knew that she hadn't seen his trick, acted as if her punch had connected and fell to the ground.

Yang just stood there in horror, how could she have done this to a friend. She went to his side only to find that he was laughing hysterically.

"You aren't hurt?" She asked worried and confused at the same time.

"I'm fine, but man you should have seen the look on your face." Soap said still laughing.

Behind her, Yang could hear the sound of Blake, who had seen and understood everything that he had done, trying to hold in her laughter but was failing miserably.

"H-h-how?" Yang stuttered, trying to comprehend what she had just seen, "The blast from that shot should have killed you instantly, regardless of whether or not you had your aura up."

Finally gaining control of himself, Soap stood up and started to explain, "Technically, you're right. That should have killed me. However, you can't hit what's not there."

This just left Yang even more confused. Soap noticed this and fell into another laughing-fit. Sarah, who was able to keep herself from laughing, tried to make things a little clearer.

"Yang. I want you to grab my arm." Sarah said.

"Why am-"

"Trust me." Sarah said with a smile.

"Alright Sarah." Yang said, extending her own arm to grab Sarah's, however, when Yang's hand got to the spot where Sarah's arm should have been, Yang found that she was touching nothing.

"You're not real." Yang said, pulling her arm back. Soap, who had almost managed to stop laughing, heard this and laughed harder.

"Quiet you." Sarah said sternly to Soap, who instantly stopped laughing and stood up straight, apologizing to Yang in the process. Turning her attention back to Yang, Sarah explained, "Our semblances, which are exactly the same except actual elements, allow us to teleport ourselves to where ever we want. We can also break down this process into chunks at a time, allowing us to teleport only part of ourselves elsewhere. Try grabbing my arm now." Yang did as she was told and found that Sarah's arm was solid.

"Incredible." Was the only thing that could be heard from Yangs lips.

* * *

**A/N: I was going to continue to the point that is shown in the show, but I figured you guys don't want to read something that you have already seen so I didn't bother. If you haven't seen it, then go watch it because it has been out for a while now.**

**Yang: This chapter was pretty short though.**

**Soap: True, but I think you'll like what I have in store for the next chapter. Plus it should be longer.**

**Sarah: What if it isn't longer?**

**Soap: Then I will make it longer. If there's one thing I know how to do right in writing, it's condensing things and being able to elaborate immensely. See ya guys in the next chapter.**

****Edit: 11-6-2014; added a scene between scene 2 and 3 so it should make a little more sense. Also fixed grammar, spelling, and verb tense issues.****


	10. Ch 9: is love that

**A/N: I had this one in the works since...probably two days ago. Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 9: is love that

* * *

After their sudden assault on Yang, Sarah and Soap vanished from the forest and reappeared in Ozpin's office.

Ozpin was waiting for them. "Hello you two."

"Hello." They responded in unison.

"You wanted to see us?" Soap said.

"Yes. You said that you wanted to be instructors, but instructors of what?" He asked.

"Personal instructors sir." Soap responded.

Ozpin raised an eyebrow, "Do you have anybody in mind?"

Soap looked at Sarah then back to Ozpin, "Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose's team. Their pairs retrieved the same pieces. I know how you form teams." Soap said.

Ozpin thought about this, "Alright. As their personal instructors, you will be responsible for teaching them combat and weapon skills, as well as covering aura and semblance techniques. You have permission to take them off campus for missions and such. I know that you would rather train them at your own personal training grounds rather than use ours, thus I am permitting you to do so as you see fit. They will not need to make up the work that they missed because of you pulling them out of class, however, they will need to get a copy of notes from their professors. You may also keep them for extended periods of time as you see fit. I legally have to ask that you keep them inside the walls of the kingdom, but I will not say anything if a bounty takes you out of the kingdom as long as you return them in one piece."

"Deal."

* * *

"Blake Belladona, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the White Knight Pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team RWBY. Led by...Ruby Rose."

They watched the ceremony on the screen in Ozpin's office. Soap could tell that Yang was proud of her little sister, since she was literally saying just that. Team RWBY started to leave the stage but were stopped by Ozpin saying, "Just a moment if you will."

All of them nodded and took a few steps back, leaving him some room on the stage.

"This year, I have decided to do something differently." The Headmaster said.

"That's our cue. You ready?" Soap said to Sarah, who nodded. Instantly they vanished from the office.

"This year, one team will receive additional training along with the training that they will be receiving here at Beacon. I am proud to announce that team RWBY is that team." As soon as he finished his sentence, two flashes appeared on stage. One of smoke and fire and one of electricity which left everyone blinded for a few moments. As soon as the effects of the flashes died off, Soap and Sarah were standing where the flashes had been.

"Team RWBY, these are your personal instructors. After the ceremony, please come see me in my office. We have things to discuss." Ozpin said to RWBY. He turned back to the rest of the crowd, "This is shaping up to be an interesting year."

As soon as he finished the statement, Soap and Sarah teleported themselves to Ozpin's office, where they waited for the Headmaster and team RWBY to arrive.

* * *

"I wonder what our personal instructors are going to teach us." Ruby wondered aloud as team RWBY entered the office, not noticing Soap and Sarah standing behind them in the shadows of the room.

The voice that answered them was not who they were expecting nor was the answer.

"So do I." Ozpin said.

This seemed to concern Weiss more than anyone else. _Weiss Schnee,_ Soap thought when he saw her, _heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, the largest supplier of Dust in the world. Wow, is she going to have a serious wakeup call. And I'm going to have fun giving it to her._

"_You_ don't even know what they're going to teach?" Weiss asked with a shriek.

"No, I don't. It is not my job to know. However, if you want to know, I suggest you ask them yourselves." He replied, motioning for Soap and Sarah to show themselves.

Team RWBY turned around to see what their Headmaster was looking at to come face to face with their new trainers.

"So Weiss, what was it that you wanted to ask us?" Soap asked, speaking for himself and Sarah.

Weiss just stood there, not saying a word, with her arms across her chest. With no questions being asked, Ozpin allowed the couple to introduce themselves to team RWBY.

Soap stepped forwards putting his hood down, when he remembered that he didn't look like himself, "Before I introduce myself, let me do something real quick." Soap said, pulling out his disguise device, which he promptly turned off. RWBY watched as the man in front of them went from having no scars whatsoever on his face and light brown hair, to having a couple of scars and pure white hair with a streak of red and a streak of black on the right side of his head,** (I was specific here because I forgot to put it in the character sheet)** not to mention that his blue eyes were now silver-brown with more silver than brown but the brown was there.

"Much better." Soap said, "Hello, my name is Soap." Weiss looked at him strangely.

"Is that your real name? And do you not have a last name?" Weiss asked.

"It was a nickname I got a long time ago from an old friend. After a while, it took it's place. My real name has since been lost to the passings of time. As for my last name, I once had one. Don't think about asking though?" Soap replied. He looked to Sarah, "This," pointing to her, "is my girlfriend and my partner."

Sarah stepped forward, "Hello, my name is Sarah Hearts." She said with a friendly voice. She lowered her hood, revealing her white and light-pink cat ears. When she did, she accomplished two things. One, she made Weiss give her a judgmental look. Two, she made Blake, Yang, and Ruby look at her ears slightly surprised, but they didn't question it.

Weiss was the first to speak up, "Why is a fanus training us? Is she even qualified to teach us?" Weiss asked with a criticizing tone in her voice. Out of the corner of his eye, Soap saw Blake look at Sarah sympathetically. At first, he didn't understand why. His eyes wandered to her bow when he saw it twitch, _Blake's a fanus_, Soap thought. He would tell Sarah about this information later, deciding that it would be best if he just watched the events that were currently unfolding.

Sarah's brows furrowed, giving her an angry look, "Although my legal name is Sarah Hearts, Weiss. it wasn't always. 'Hearts' is just a nickname that I got over the years in the field and after I met Soap, it became my real name." Sarah said with anger in her voice. Soap was about to speak when he was met with a look from Ozpin telling him to let her finish. Ozpin, thinking of this as entertainment and wishing that he had a bag of popcorn, wanted to see how things would end. "Unlike Soap, who was a bounty hunter, I was the world's youngest and most infamous mercenary. Soap never killed anything with a soul. I, on the other hand, have many times." Sarah's eyes had turned blood red, rivaling Yang's eyes when she was mad.

Weiss looked genuinely afraid when she spoke next, "Who are you?"

"My real name is Sarah Kirtsov." The name made Weiss back up a step with wide eyes. She had heard the legends of Sarah Kirtsov, a mercenary that would not stop at anything until she accomplished her mission. The legends that began with how a young cat fanus brought down an entire squad of White Fang members with only her semblance and a metal pipe. "The last person that told me I was unqualified for a job because I was a fanus, ended up six feet under with air still in their lungs. So Weiss. I am giving you one, and only one, warning. If you say anything like that, or anything discriminatory for that matter, to me, or any other fauns ever again, I will not hesitate to kill you. The world would do well with one less racist." Weiss was stunned.

Weiss tried to regain some of her dignity, "You wouldn't kill me." Weiss said, not exactly 100% sure of herself.

"You know what Weiss? You're right, she won't." Soap said. Weiss visibly relaxed for a second, "Sarah was also right when she said that I never killed anything with a soul. With that said, you clearly do not have one. I don't take kindly to racism, _especially_ racism that is directed towards my girlfriend. If I ever hear you say anything racist to her Weiss, I will not hesitate to kill you. Is that understood?" He said, his face uncomfortably close to hers.

Weiss was now terrified again, "Yes sir." She said, trying to avoid eye contact with him.

"Good." He said smiling. He took a step back from Weiss to address everybody in the room, "We have been given permission from your Headmaster to take you off-campus when I deem it necessary. Myself and Sarah, along with the rest of my team will be responsible for teaching you the skills necessary to being a Hunter. I will tell you right now, you will be spending most of your time outside of the walls of Beacon's. This is to give you more field experience than the other teams. Tonight will be spent here. Tomorrow's classes will start at 9:00 sharp. I suggest that you don't be late. I will be giving one of you information tomorrow morning about where and when you shall meet us afterwards. That is all." Soap finished, nodding to Ozpin who handed RWBY their scrolls.

"Team RWBY, You are dismissed." Ozpin said.

* * *

As soon as RWBY left, Ozpin spoke, "Well. That went well." His voice laced with sarcasm.

Ozpin had a few things he wanted to discuss with Soap and Sarah.

"I honestly think you handled that well." He said with a serious face.

Soap raised an eyebrow at this, obviously not believing him, "I hope you know that Sarah wasn't kidding when she said that."

"I know." He said reaching into his desk for something. That thing, was revealed to be a data chip, "I believe that this will prove to suffice your need for knowledge on the WF's recent activity and their relations with the recent Dust robberies."

He tossed Soap the chip, "I know that the terms of our agreement only lasted to initiation, however I suspect that you will be staying to help Ruby and her team out for a lot longer that originally stated. Why is that?"

"You never told me that Ruby Rose was attending Beacon." Soap said looking out the window of Ozpin's office.

"You never asked. What makes makes her so special?" Ozpin asked.

"Her mother, Summer Rose, was the one who gave me the nickname Soap. I was with her when she died. Had I known what I do now, Summer would still be alive, but I was unable to save her. Instead, she died in my arms, me trying to stop the flow of blood from her body. Before she died though, she made me promise something." Soap said.

"What did you promise?" Ozpin asked.

"I promised that I would watch over her daughter, Ruby, to the best of my abilities. Currently I see no better way to do so than giving her the knowledge and skills necessary to stay alive when the world falls. Summer was a mother and a friend to me, I will see to it that I keep my promise."

"I knew Summer, not only as a friend, but as a teammate during our time here attending Beacon. You can do whatever you need to do to keep your promise." Ozpin said.

* * *

The couple went to the room that Ozpin had provided to them for the night which was right next to RWBY's room, saying that it would easier to keep an eye on them. When they finally arrived at their room it was already midnight, but that didn't bother them though. As of late, both Soap and Sarah had been rather restless when it came to sleep. Since they already knew that weren't getting any sleep, they headed to the roof with the guitar that Soap had brought with him and settled into a night of singing song. Songs of romance, songs of war, songs of peace, and songs of a lifestyle long forgotten.

* * *

**~RWBY Dorm (Yang)**

She awoke in a cold sweat and gripping her bed sheets. That was the second time that night that Yang had been ripped from sleep by a nightmare. For the past 3 weeks, she had been having the same dream every time she managed to fall asleep. The woods...Ruby...Summer...The Grimm, oh the Grimm. '_It's just a dream...'_ she told herself as she tried to get back to sleep. After what felt like an eternity, she looked at the clock on her scroll. _'3 A.M? Whelp...I'm not getting any more sleep tonight...I might as well see if anyone's on the roof.' _She thought to herself as she exited the dorm and headed towards the roof access. As she neared the door she heard Sarah and Soap's voices. '_They're obviously up...wait...what am I hearing?'_ she thought to herself as she opened the door.

* * *

**~Soap (normal POV)**

Soap continued to sing even after he saw Yang walk out onto the roof. _Sarah, tell her to come sit down next to us. _Soap said to Sarah, not even bothering to stop singing.

_Sure thing._ She said in reply. She got up from her spot on the roof and went over to Yang and said, "Why don't you come join us?"

"What are you doing?" was the response she gave.

"If you sit down we'll explain."

"Ok." Yang responded.

Sitting down, Yang saw what looked to be some sort of weird weapon looking thing in Soap's hands. It had a giant hole where his right hand was currently moving across six wires that went down the entire length of the thing.

Yang didn't appear to notice him stop singing, so he spoke, "What are you doing up Yang? Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"You know I could say the same to you two."

"Fair enough." Soap said, defensively raising his hands. "My response, however, can wait. Your's, cannot. What's bothering you Yang? You look troubled."

"Nightmares."

"What about?"

When she spoke, it was obvious that her nightmare shook her to the core, "A twisted and fucked up version of what I actually did when my mom disappeared."

"What happened?" Sarah asked, remembering the nightmares she had after the first time she killed something.

"I'm 8 years old and Ruby had just turned 6. I was so distressed about her disappearing, that I put Ruby in a wagon and trekked out to where she supposedly died. When we get there, we get attacked by Beowolves. I can't fight back because I'm still exhausted from getting there. They knock me away from Ruby and pin me against a tree. Then they drag a sleeping Ruby out to where I can see her from the tree. And then..." Yang said, failing to fight back the tears.

"You don't have to continue if you don't want to."

"No...I have to get this out." Yang said through her sobs. Managing to gain control of herself, she continued, "Then ripped Ruby apart piece by little piece until there is nothing left. Then they proceed to slowly kill me."

The next few minutes consisted of Sarah trying to calm Yang down. After Sarah had managed to do so, Yang remembered the strange thing in Soap's hands. Curious, she asked about it, "What were you doing when I first came up here?"

"Playing music." He replied instantly and nonchalantly. However, his answer only made Yang confused.

"What?"

Soap smiled as he held back a small laugh, "Sometimes I forget that Remnant has gone more than 100 years without any sort of music." Soap said looking at Sarah who nodded in agreement, "Music was lost to time after fighting Grimm became a priority and time for pleasure no longer existed. Thus, it disappeared." He let out a heavy sigh, "Let's see, how do I begin to explain this? Music is a form of art, art is means of expressing yourself in a way that normal words would fail to do. Music has an almost magic effect on people, it has the ability to alter a person's mood. It also has the ability to calm people down if they're scared or worried or whatever." He paused, "Yang, I'm going to play a song and when I do, I want you to listen with everything that you have. I guarantee that if you do this, you will be able to sleep. So, what do you say, give it a shot?"

Without so much as even waiting for a response, Soap started to play the intro to I'm Yours and watched as Yang began to relax with just the intro.

***Cue I'm Your's by Jason Mraz***

"Well, you done done me and you bet I felt it,  
I tried to be chill..."

'_Sarah?' _Soap asked her in his head as he sang the first verse.

"...but you're so hot that I melted,"

'_Hmmm?'_ He heard in response.

"...I fell right through the cracks,"

_'Do you mind joining me at the second verse? You have a better voice than me. Angelic actually. You will certainly put her to sleep with how soothing your voice can be.'_

"...Now I'm trying to get back."

_'Sure.' _Sarah said smiling at him before she joined in. Soap lowered his voice to let the beauty that was his girlfriend's voice ring out over his own.

"Before the cool dawn run out, I'll be giving it my bestest...,  
And nothing's gonna stop me but divine intervention,  
I reckon, it's again my turn to win some or learn some."

Soap looked over to Yang who was leaning against the wall, swaying with the music, and smiled. Now there were six people on Remnant that knew the magic of music.

"But I won't hesitate, no more, no more.  
It cannot wait, I'm yours."

"Well, open up your mind and see like me,  
Open up your plans and damn you're free.  
Look into your heart and you'll find love, love, love, love.  
Listen to the music of the moment people dance and sing,  
we're just one big family  
And it's our God-forsaken right to be loved, loved, loved, loved, loved."

"So I won't hesitate No more, no more.  
It cannot wait, I'm sure.  
There's no need to complicate,  
Our time is short.  
This is our fate, I'm yours."

***End song***

The rest of the song passed by in the blink of an eye for Soap. When the song was over, he looked over to Yang and saw that her eyes had shut and her breathing had slowed, which signaled that their mission was accomplished. After he finished what little was left of the song, he got up and handed Sarah his guitar, telling her that he would meet her in their room. Shortly after she left, he lifted Yang off the roof and brought her back to her team's dorm. Placing her gently in her bed, he whispered the words, "Sweet Dreams Yang." Soap promptly left the room to get some sleep of his own.

* * *

**A/N: Don't you love it when you plan a chapter one way and it goes off in a direction that you didn't plan.**

**Sarah: Kinda like the last couple chapters?**

**Soap: Yep. I try to plan, I go as far as to make a very detailed outline for the thing, but then I end up going against it.**

**Sarah: Well...It makes it interesting. Right?**

**Soap: *heavy sigh* Nope, It just makes it harder to figure out where the hell this story is going. Oh well. On to the next chapter.**

**Edit: 11-6-2014; rewrote the first scene so it should make a little more sense. Also fixed grammar, spelling, verb tense, and punctuation issues.**


	11. Ch 10: brings us hope

**A/N: This is going to be a hard chapter to type.**

**Sarah: How so?**

**Soap: Mainly because of the context of the chapter.**

**Sarah: Sooooo...A lot of feels?**

**Soap: *heavy sigh* Yep.**

* * *

Chapter 10: brings us hope

* * *

Soap woke up at his usual time before Sarah at 5:30 in the room that was provided to them by Ozpin. Soap laying underneath Sarah, and unwilling to wait for her to wake up to move off of him, he teleported himself to the floor beside the bed. Getting up, he decided that it would be best for him to wake her now rather than after he had his coffee with the reasoning that she could have more time to enjoy her own cup of joe.

"Five more minutes..." Soap heard her mumble when he started shaking her shoulder.

"Come on Sarah. It's time to get up." He said, trying to wake her up peacefully. When she didn't respond to his efforts, he came up with another plan.

"Hey Sarah, team RWBY is still sleeping. If you get up now, you will have more time to plan out pranks to play on them." Sarah instantly shot out of bed and ran toward said team's door, nearly running over Soap in the process. Soap did, however, have enough sense to prepare for this, and caught her in the hallway before she could get to RWBY's door.

"Easy there! It's 6:00 AM. We have plenty of time to prank them. After all we will be with them for the next 4 years." Soap said trying to keep her from RWBY's door. "And I did say plan, not enact."

"Fine." Sarah said, backing away from the door a little disheartened. She took the mug that Soap was currently holding out for her and took a sip.

"Besides, I hear they're serving breakfast right now." He said trying to cheer her up. Since the mention of breakfast failed to do so; he tried something else. "I also hear that the head chef serves a mean tuna sandwich."

Just then, they heard someone jump out of bed and run to the door. They turned to the noise and to see RWBY's door open, revealing a fully awake and dressed Blake. "What about tuna?" She asked, shutting the door behind her.

Soap and Sarah just looked at each other and started laughing, which left Blake confused.

"Walk with us Blake." Soap said after he had recovered. "We will explain once we make some distance between us and your teammates."

"Ok." She said shrugging.

* * *

With five minutes of walking distance now between the trio and the rest of the girls, Soap broke the silence.

"Blake, the reason why we were laughing was because you asking about tuna is just so like you." Soap said.

"What do you mean?" Blake said.

"Sarah, take off your hood for a sec." Soap said, communicating wordlessly exactly what he was going to do.

"You're a faunus Blake. To be more specific, a cat faunus." Sarah said as she took off her hood.

"What makes you say that?" Blake said, trying to look as innocent as possible.

Soap let out a heavy sigh, "Blake, I saw your bow twitch when we were introducing ourselves yesterday. Plus, Sarah _is _a faunus. She's able to tell who is and isn't a faunus."

"I'm not a faunus." Blake said, trying one last time to get them to leave her alone.

"Cut the crap Blake. Sarah and I both know that the bow is just for show." Soap said, obviously not going to take no for an answer.

Blake stayed silent for a while. To Soap, it looked like she was fighting with herself. Eventually she gave up and just admitted. "Fine, I'm a faunus. Happy?" She said, hoping that would be enough to satisfy them.

Soap and Sarah both looked at each other, both knowing what the other was thinking.

"Nope." They responded simultaneously.

"What more could you possibly want me to do?" She questioned. The frustration able to be clearly heard in her voice.

"Take off the bow." Soap said, a knowing smile on his face.

Seconds of silence passed between the trio before Blake fully realized what they were asking. "What?! Why?"

Soap sighed, "Blake, we will be practically living together for the next four years. You can trust me. Plus, I'm dating a faunus and have been for the past 2 years. Furthermore, there are two faunus on my team." Blake looked confused when he said this. "You'll be meeting the other later today." He said quickly before she asked. "Believe me. You can trust me."

After a few more seconds of silence, she finally said OK and took off her bow revealing a set of black and light-grey cat ears. "Was that so hard?" Soap asked as Blake quickly put the bow back on. "Blake, thank you for trusting me. I won't tell the rest of your team, and I'm sure Sarah won't either." Sarah shook her head in agreement. "We will let you find your own way to tell them; but you will eventually have to tell them. Secrets between teammates is never a good thing. Not to mention, you look better without the bow."

Blake looked as if she was about to cry. "Thank you." She said as she turned to head to the cafeteria, but was stopped by Soap's voice.

"Hey Blake." He looked her in the eyes. "For what it's worth, I find myself to be more readily trusting of faunus than those of my own race." Soap said as he started to walk off with Sarah in his own direction.

"Why?" Soap stopped when he heard Blake's voice.

"Why what?" Soap responded.

"Why do you trust faunus more than you trust humans?"

He gave a slight laugh at this, "You really want to know?" He said turning to look at her.

Blake shook her head yes.

"Well that makes two people that want to know about my past." Even though she hadn't said it, Soap could tell that Yang also wanted to know about his past. "If you truly want to know, then you can ask Sarah later today; she'll be able to explain things better than I will."

"OK."

"Sarah," She looked at Soap, "let's go wake the rest of our team up." Sarah nodded and promptly disappeared, "Blake," He said, turning his attention back to her, "make sure that your team is up with enough time to get ready for your first class at 9:00. Also, I'll be picking you guys up at noon in front of the statue in the courtyard. Don't be late."

"What about our afternoon classes?"

"What about them?"

"Won't we be missing them?" Blake asked.

"Ozpin has given me permission to take RWBY off-campus as I see fit, and I see it necessary for this afternoon and all of tomorrow to be spent getting to know each other better. The classes that you miss will not have to be made up. Any other questions?"

Blake shook her head no.

"Very well, I'll be seeing you and you team at noon."

With that, he disappeared and Blake headed towards breakfast wondering how she was going to survive the next four years of her life.

* * *

**Meanwhile back at the church...**

Sarah was busy snapping pictures of one of the cutest sights she had ever seen, a sleeping Sam curled up with a sleeping Drake. '_Blackmail' _she thought.

After she had finished taking her pictures, Soap appeared behind her.

_'What are you doing?' S_he heard him ask in her head.

_'Doing recon.'_ She responded, to which Soap raised an eyebrow.

_'On Drake and Sam?'_

_'Yeah. These pics might be useful later.'_

He looked at the sleeping couple, noting how Sam was pressed up against her partner and how Drake's arms were wrapped around her. He looked at Sarah and gave her a very judgmental look. _'You can be such a child at times.'_

_'Look who's talking.'_

_'Whatever. Let's just get them up.' _Soap responded.

_'The usual?' _Sarah asked, already holding a bucket of ice water.

_'Nah. I have something else in mind.' _He turned and started towards the bookshelf that was on the opposite side of the room, stopping in front of it. _'You might want to leave the room. It's going to get a little loud in here.'_

Sarah smiled knowing exactly what he was planning. She walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Soap walked over to the stereo that Soap had hid in their room in case an opportunity like this were to arise. Cranking the volume up to about halfway, he picked his poison and let it play.

***Cue Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold***

As the bass increased, Drake and Sam started to stir. However, it wasn't until the intro ended and the main song began that they actually woke up. Seeing that they had woken up, he turned off the stereo.

"Good morning!" Soap yelled.

_"Dammit Soap! Did you need to wake us up like that?" _Drake asked as he pushed himself up into a sitting position on his bed.

"Yeah, I kinda did."

"Might I ask why?" Soap heard a feminine voice ask.

"To get back at you, Sam, for all of the times that you made fun of Sarah and I and our relationship." He replied, turning on the light.

With the lights now on, he was able to get a good look at the room. He looked around the room and noticed how clothes seemed to be thrown all over the room. At first he thought nothing of it, his and Sarah's room looked something similar after they had some "quality time" together. As he looked back to the sleepy couple, he realized something. Neither Sam nor Drake had any clothes on. Realizing this, Soap's jaw dropped.

Drake face-palmed and shook his head; he knew exactly what Soap was thinking.

Soap didn't move, instead he just stood there with his mouth agape starring directly at the two. "What are you starring at?" Sam asked, completely oblivious to the fact that she didn't have anything on.

After a second, she realized why he was starring at them with a stunned look. Her face immediately reddened. "SHIT!" She swore to herself.

"Sarah!" Soap screamed at the top of his lungs.

Within seconds, Sarah burst through the door with weapons in hand. "What!?"

"Guess whose not a virgin anymore!?" Soap said to Sarah with a devious grin, currently thinking of all the teasing that he and Sarah could do now to get their revenge.

Sarah raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? Sam, you're fifteen!"

Drake got up, still not clothed, and activated his semblance making a sword of Ice and walked steadily toward Soap and Sarah. _"BOTH OF YOU! GET OUT!"_

Now fearing for their lives, Sarah and Soap fled the room.

* * *

Now in the kitchen, Bucky handed them their breakfast.

"So where did you guys disappear to for the past two days?" Bucky asked.

Soap gave a heavy sigh and told him their story.

"So let me get this straight, you agreed to personally train a team from Beacon?"

"Yes." Soap said.

"And, this team is going to be showing up later today?"

"Yep."

"Sweet! I have more people to cook for."

Soap and Sarah laughed at Bucky. He was always creating new recipes and was always asking them to give it a try.

Sam and Drake walked in at this time. _"What about a team from Beacon?" _Drake asked.

"Sarah and I agreed to personally train a team in exchange for all the information Beacon's Headmaster had on the White Fang and their connection to the recent Dust robberies." Soap looked at the time, "We should actually be heading out to pick them up. Sarah you're coming with, everybody else stays here. We will be back shortly."

"Alright, see you guys in a bit."

* * *

If there was one thing that Soap loved to do, it would have to be flying his Bullhead, and oh how he loved to fly like a madman. However reckless Soap was when he was flying, he wasn't stupid. He knew that if he tried to approach Beacon flying as low and fast as he usually did, he would be shot out of the sky by their defense system.

Deciding to be cautious, he messaged Ozpin with his Bullhead's verification number so he wasn't shot at.

11:55...he was cutting it close. He wondered if the girls would actually be there.

Nearing the school, he could see four figures standing by the statue,_'They're on time. Now I have standards to hold them to.' _Soap thought to himself. "Sarah," Soap yelled over the noise of the bullhead's engines, "take the controls. I'm going to go say hi to the girls." She nodded, moving to the pilot's seat.

The Bullhead was a few hundred feet directly above Team RWBY when he handed the controls over to Sarah and jumped out of the aircraft.

The girls, two of which knew what he was going to do since they knew what his semblance was, watched on in half awe half horror as Soap plummeted towards the ground. At the last second, he teleported himself behind Yang and waited for them to realize that he was no longer falling.

It took exactly a minute for them to realize that he was no longer in the air and standing behind Yang.

They turned around staring at him, Weiss and Ruby in amazement, Yang in jealousy, and Blake in half annoyance half wonder.

Ruby spoke first, "How did you just do that?"

"My semblance is smoke and fire but also allows me to teleport and fly." He said with a smile.

A few seconds later they heard the Bullhead land with a thud behind them and a female voice say, "Why do you always get to have all the fun?"

Soap shrugged, "I dunno. Why are you always on top?" He yelled back to Sarah.

She thought about this, "Fair enough."

He turned back to the girls, "Team RWBY, you ready to go?" There were nods all around. "Alright! Once everybody's on, buckle up and close your eyes."

All of RWBY followed the first and second part of his instructions without question. However, Weiss was having trouble with the third. "Why are we closing our eyes?"

"I've never been a fan of long flights, at least when people other than my own team are present, so once we're in the air I am going to teleport us to our destination." Soap said without any hesitation as the Bullhead slowly lifted off the ground.

"That doesn't answer my question though." Weiss said back.

"Have you ever starred at the sun, even if it was just for a few seconds?" Sarah asked.

Weiss nodded.

"Unless you're the one doing the teleporting, or you have that same ability, the teleportation process will look like something to that effect and will permanently blind you." Sarah told her.

Weiss, no longer willing to question their logic, closed her eyes.

The teleport was instantaneous, "You can open your eyes now." Soap said, the Bullhead safely on the ground in the hanger at the church, "Another reason why I teleported us is that out of you four," He said as they all exited the aircraft, "Yang would be the only one that would like my flying. Even then, she might not like it."

Team RWBY all shook their heads in understanding.

With nothing else to say, Soap took RWBY to the main lobby of the building.

* * *

Now in the main lobby, Soap called for the rest his own team to come and meet assembled in a matter of minutes.

"Team RWBY, I would like to introduce to you my team. You already know Sarah." He said pointing to her. He then shifted his finger to Sam, "This is Sam. Sam is our resident firearms, long-range, and stealth expert. She's also our intel specialist and a hawk fanus."

"How old are you?" Ruby asked, who was curious once she heard that there was another weapon geek in the same room.

"I am 15." Sam replied. Ruby smiled, she knew who she was going to be talking to the first chance she got.

"Then we have Drake, who is just an all around power house and can create any weapon he wants out of Ice." Drake waved politely at them. Soap looked at the expressions currently on the faces of Team RWBY. Ruby was staring at Sam, Blake was staring in wonder at Sam's white hawk wings, Weiss just looked annoyed, and Yang. Well...Yang was currently staring at Drake's currently shirtless body with a look that just screamed 'I want you.' Soap saw this and decided to help Sam out, "He is also currently dating Sam. So sorry Yang,he's taken. You can put your tongue back in your mouth now." Realizing that Soap was telling the truth, she closed her mouth, "However Yang, this guy will give you a run for your money. So if your looking for a good fight, he's your man."

Drake stood there silent.

"Drake, say something would ya?"

Soap felt Drake's presence enter his mind._ "Why should I?"_

"Really Drake? Because saying hi would be the polite thing to do."

_"That still doesn't give me a reason to say hi." _Team RWBY was very confused at this point. They were currently seeing Soap arguing with Drake, who wasn't even moving his mouth.

Soap grabbed Sarah's scroll and went to the picture app, "Drake, I'm going to show these lovely young ladies the picture that Sarah took of you and Sam this morning if you don't."

Drake's face drained of color, _"Fine. But if you show them that picture, I will kill you." _Soap felt Drake's presence leave him and then return as Drake reached out to everybody in the room._ "Hello girls."_

RWBY all looked around, trying to locate the source of the voice. "Who said that?" Yang asked, causing Soap to start laughing.

"Oops. I forgot to mention that Drake has two semblances. One is Ice, which he uses for combat. The second is telecommunication, which is a natural adaptation from him having his vocal chords ripped out. And before you ask, no it wasn't by choice. If you want to know why, you can ask him later." Soap said once he regained control of himself.

"Last but not least, we have Bucky; who is the very reason that I'm still alive today. Alright, that wraps up introductions. Spend some time getting to know each other and in three hours, come meet me in the sanctuary." The girls looked at each other confused. Soap sighed and pointed behind him, "The room behind me."

A chorus of Ohh's could be heard in response as he entered the room that he had previously pointed out.

With Soap now in the sanctuary, RWBY split up and did as they were told.

Ruby, unsurprisingly, followed Sam who made her way to the garage/weapons forge/shop. Needless to say, the two talked about weapons and cars the entire time.

* * *

~Sarah **(this next scene, like all the scenes that I write, is going to be in 3rd person but centered around Sarah. I will not be doing any 1st person writing until I get better at it.)**

Knowing that Blake was going to follow her, Sarah motioned for Drake and Yang to follow her as well and made her way towards the GYM.

She turned to Drake before addressing Blake and Yang, "Drake, did you ever hear Soap's story?"

_"No I didn't."_

"Would you like to?"

_"Sure. I've been curious about his past ever since I accepted his offer."_

Yang and Blake looked confused when Drake mentioned the word 'offer'. Yang was about to ask what he meant when Sarah stopped them, "Don't ask, Soap will be explaining a lot later." Blake and Yang looked satisfied with the answer. Sarah called them over to a table in the corner and told them to sit down.

"Before I begin, do you have any questions that you want answered now? Otherwise, hold any and all questions till the end." Sarah asked.

Blake spoke up first, "Why are you telling us Soap's past instead Soap himself?"

"There are things in life that we only have the strength to face once. When Soap told me, he nearly broke down with every word." Sarah began with an emotionless voice.

"What in his past could possibly be so terrible that he's unwilling to even talk about it?" Blake asked.

"Well, the mindless slaughter of an entire village tends to do that to people." Sarah responded in a monotone voice, effectively silencing Yang and Blake. The emotionless stare that Sarah gave them sent a chill down their spines.

"What happened?" Yang asked, now concerned about Sarah's emotionless, monotone voice, but decided against voicing her concern.

Sarah sighed, "I'm going to apologize now about how emotionless and monotone my voice will be; not to mention how indifferent and disconnected I will seem. There is a reason for that." She paused to take a breath.

"I became aware of life at the age of five. This is nothing unusual. What is unusual is that my aura was unlocked. I have no recollection as to how though.

"When I first started fighting, I found that I already had an immense amount of control over my semblance. This fact led me to believe that I was born with it. Because of this when I unlocked Soap's aura a deep bond was formed between the two of us. An aura bond if you will. The bond that we share allows us to share aura, semblances, and thoughts. Because of this, when Soap told me about his past I saw and felt everything through his eyes. I lived his memories as if they were my own." She quietly pushed back tears. "This is why I sound the way I do. I guess you could say that it's a way for me to cope with the pain that he felt." She took another breath.

Sarah finished stilling her emotions and began, "No one remembers the first day that they are alive, nor do they remember the first couple of years of his or her life; this is also true for Soap. Up until Soap was five, he had lived in a village that was a 3 day walk from here. A couple of weeks after he turned five, his world was turned upside down. His village was attacked by a group of thugs that made a living by choosing specific villages to attack, killing who lived there, burning it to the ground, then picking through the rubble for loot. They would take someone hostage, usually a child, to make sure that the villagers wouldn't attack them. Soap was the one they had chosen that time, but his family wasn't going to let him go without a fight.

"This was a mistake on his family's part though and spelled doom for the rest of his village. He watched as his family and friends were killed in front of him either by their throats being cut open or by execution. When everyone was dead, the thug holding Soap went to slit his throat but he saw an opportunity to escape and took it. By doing so, Soap was forced to mentally mature 10 years in less than two seconds."

Sarah looked at the people in front of her visibly shaken; even Drake after all that he had been through.

"Soap killed the thug that was holding him with his own knife. When he did, something inside him snapped. Channeling all the rage, hate, and anger that he had in him, he killed the thugs that had destroyed his home. As he killed them one by one, the emotions tainted him, changing his pure white hair to pure black. This change is what gave him the nickname 'Demon'. After everybody was dead, he made his way to Vale, meeting Bucky along the way, and purchased the building you are in currently. The rest is history." Sarah said, her voice changing to it's normal cheerful self. "Any questions?"

None were mentioned, "Alrighty then. Yang, Drake. I believe that you two have a fight to get to." Sarah said.

Yang perked up at the mention of a fight, and immediately went to the center of the GYM. She got into her fighting stance and taunted Drake, "Let's fight pretty boy."

"Since I'm not going to over see it, all I ask is that you don't kill each other." Sarah said. She turned to Blake, "Make sure that they don't kill each other, will ya? I'm going to go find Soap. Don't come looking for us until Drake says so." Blake nodded in understanding. "See ya in a bit." She activated her semblance and disappeared. Blake turned back to fight and settled in for a long fight.

* * *

While Blake, Yang and Ruby wandered off to where ever they wandered off to, Weiss found herself shadowing Bucky. She followed him to the last place that she expected him to go, the kitchen. Walking in behind him, she cleared her throat, getting his attention.

"Oh hey. What's up? You're Weiss right?" He asked.

Weiss was confused for a second, "How do you know my name?" She asked.

"Two reasons. One, Soap sent us your files. Two, you are the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, how could I not know you?" Bucky replied with a smile.

For as long as he could remember, Bucky was always better in tune with people's emotions than anyone else that he knew. Being able to accurately guess a person's mood or emotions just by what sort of energy their aura was giving off, and right now, the heiress' aura felt confused and annoyed, but more than anything, it felt like she wanted to ask him a question.

"I guess that's true." Weiss replied, referring to Bucky guessing her name. She was about to open her mouth to speak when Bucky spoke.

"Annoyed and confused, that's what you're feeling right now. I can also tell that you want to ask me a question, what's on your mind?" He said as he put on his apron. "Also, before you ask, over the years I have developed the ability to accurately guess a person's emotions before they say a word. But seriously, what's on your mind?"

"Why do you follow Soap?" She blurted out, slightly surprising Bucky, who did nothing other than tilt his head asking her to clarify what she meant. Weiss noticed this and proceeded to explain herself, "I mean, why do you take orders from him? It's obvious to me that you're older than him; so, why do you follow him?"

Bucky turned to face her, "13 years ago, I picked him up off the side of the road and brought him to Vale. I gave him some lien and sent him on his way. I thought that was it. I abandoned him, because surely there was someone else that could take care better of him than I could, and to be quite honest, I didn't expect him to survive more than a month. Yet he survived against all odds. 12 years later, broken, tired, and literally starving to death, I came knocking on his door hoping he would forgive me and put a roof over my head. He knew very well what I had done, and yet, he let me in anyways. He gave me a second chance, even though he knew that I didn't deserve it." He took a breath, "I follow Soap because he gave me a chance when no one else would. I owe him my life."

"That's it?" Bucky could sense that she hadn't gotten the answer she was looking for. "What has he done to prove that he is worth following?"

"More than you ever possibly could." Bucky stopped for a second and let the anger flow away from him. "I know that you are discontent with Ruby's position as leader. This morning, in fact, you yelled at her for giving you advice in the middle of a fight, claiming that she was proving to be little more than a distraction. You also said that you had trained your entire life to be a leader and that a child has no place being a leader. You also said that Ozpin made a mistake." Weiss was stunned, _how could he possibly know all of this?_ she thought. "I follow a man that has made more bad decisions and mistakes than anyone else on the planet has, more than even Ozpin. And yet, there is no one else I would rather follow."

Weiss turned around to start walking away, but was stopped by a voice, "Weiss, your leader can't lead, if you don't let her. Do yourself a favor and give her a chance."

* * *

As Sarah walked to the sanctuary, she could hear the sounds of a guitar being played as she got closer to the door. She recognized the song as one of their favorites, Rhythm of Love by the Plain White T's. She walked in and sat down next to Soap. He knew she was coming and motioned for her to join in on the last chorus, and she did.

With the song now over, he turned to look at her. "Thank you for telling them my story. I don't think I could have been able to re-live those memories again."

Sarah said nothing, instead, she pulled him into to a deep, passionate kiss. They continued the kiss until the need for air became too much. Soap wrapped his arms around her and laid back into his seat, bringing Sarah with him. They stayed like that until it was time to call the others back. He sent a message to the rest of his team, telling them to start heading back. The couple got up and got ready for what they had in store for Team RWBY. A brief overview of what they would be learning over the course of the school year.

* * *

_"We all have done things that we aren't proud of. I, more than most. Holding onto thoughts and emotions that were controlling me; had she not found me when she did, they would have killed me."_

_\- Chris_

* * *

**A/N: I can't believe I did that. OVER 5K WORDS! Time for sleep though. See you guy's next time!**


	12. Ch 11: even against all

****A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to get out. I had little to no time to actually type this. Just a heads up, Summer Rose will be mentioned in this chapter. If you want to know what I am talking about if I refer to certain things about her, use the following links to give yourself a mental image. REMOVE THE SPACES FOR THE LINKS TO WORK. (goo. gl/ Cyllao) &amp; (goo. gl/ EAXGDa) The picture of Summer that I have in my head is a combination of ****the weapons in the first link, and the outfit in the second link.******** Credit goes to the artists' for their work.****  
****

********Enjoy the chapter.********

* * *

Chapter 11: even against all

* * *

Soap never needed much sleep. Sarah...was a different story. She liked her sleep.

Deciding to let her sleep, he left his room to get some coffee ready. The kitchen was located on the other side of the church, past the room that team RWBY was occupying. With his coffee cup now in his possession, he left the kitchen to go to the sanctuary.

As part of his morning routine after Soap had his coffee, he would practice his guitar for a little bit then go to the garage and tinker with his weapons and/or cars. This morning, however, would be a little different.

* * *

Now in the sanctuary with his guitar, he practiced while he waited for his shadow to show itself.

"You know, for a near shadow, you aren't all that stealthy." Soap said to seemingly no one when he turned around.

Blake stepped out from the shadows with a surprised look on her face. She opened her mouth to ask how he had heard her when he spoke. "I may not be a fanus, but I share a bond with Sarah, who _is _a fanus. Because of this, I have far better sight and hearing than a normal human being. But my sight and hearing is nothing compared to you, Sam, or Sarah." He said.

Blake thought about this for a second and shrugged, it made sense, but she still had a question, "How long did you know that I was following you?"

"Ever since I left the kitchen. You took your time following me into here though." He said as he put his guitar down on its stand and took a sip of coffee. He motioned for her to come join him where he sat. When she did, Soap handed her a second mug of coffee. Soap had a feeling that someone would be joining him this morning, so he brought a second mug with him. "So...What are you doing up at this hour?" He asked as she took a long sip from the mug Soap had given her.

"I have questions." She said.

"I figured as much. What about?"

"Yesterday, Sarah told me and Yang about your past and you were right; it did explain why you trust faunas more than your own race." She paused for a moment before continuing.

She thought back to her time in the White Fang. She knew that the assassins of the White Fang often prepared beforehand to ensure that their emotions and morals wouldn't get in the way of a kill.

"The way Sarah sealed herself off from her emotions though. Her voice lacking emotion and giving off an aura of neutrality... you don't learn that from a normal Huntress lifestyle. You learn that from experience. specifically as a killer. Which makes me wonder, what did she do before you met her?" She asked.

"What's the first thing that you remember?" Soap asked as he leaned forward.

Blake was surprised. She really didn't expect the question.

To be honest though, she didn't remember much of anything before she joined the White Fang so she shook her head.

Soap sighed before he began. "The first thing that Sarah can remember is waking up in an orphanage at the age of five with her aura unlocked and a name. To this day, we still have no idea how. She has no recollection of how she got there or any family that might have put her there. Her name, Sarah Kirtsov, was the only thing she could remember.

"She spent five years in that orphanage. Five years of making friends and fighting anybody that was willing in order to train. Doing so, she gained major control over her semblance and aura. The orphanage in question was non-biased and gave shelter to humans and faunus alike. Around the time she turned ten, the White Fang attacked the orphanage."

"What happened?" Blake asked.

"I'll give you the short version. She snapped when she saw what the White Fang were doing to her friends. In her moments of rage, the entire White Fang force was wiped out. In the process, she lost two people very dear to and damaged her body." Soap said.

"How did she damage her body?" Blake asked.

"When she snapped, her overflow of emotions stained her hair and changed her eye color from baby blue to what it is now." Soap answered.

"What was the White Fang doing to her friends?"

"They dowsed them in burn dust and ignited it burning her friends alive."

Blake was visibly shaken. "What did she do after that?" She asked, her voice slightly shaking.

"She became a mercenary; becoming the world's youngest and most feared mercenary in the process. For the next six years she did this; then when she was 16, she decided to leave everything behind and bought a one-way ticket to Vacuo. That's when I first ran into her, literally. I made her miss her airship. So I did the only thing I could think of, I gave her two choices. Leave to Vacuo and be set for life in regards to lien, however, her past would forever haunt her." Soap said.

"What was the other choice you gave her?" Blake asked.

"Stay here and start over. A new life, a new name, and a new direction. She...well...You can see what she chose. Jumping ahead; she unlocked my aura and we fell in love. We have been together ever since." Soap said, finishing his story. "Does that answer your question?" He asked.

"One of them, Yes. My other question regards you. How did survive after..." She thought about her word choices. Since his past was a fragile subject, she would have to pick them carefully. "...after the events that happened when you were five?"

"I found that I was extraordinarily gifted when it comes to technology. So, I hacked into other people's bank accounts and made their money, my money. In doing so, I became the world's youngest millionaire. Then I bought this place, an old abandoned building that is the last remaining symbol of a way of life that is now long dead, and turned it into a home." Soap said.

"What happened to it?" Blake asked. "The way of life that you mentioned."

"The religion, died when my village was burnt to the ground. I was the last of its followers." He responded.

"Was?" Blake said now more curious than ever.

"Yes, was." He said.

"You don't anymore?" Blake asked.

"I don't know...Part of me still believes, part of me doesn't, and yet another part of me that is caught right in the middle. I've seen things in my life that I can't explain, things that can only be explained by the things that I once believed, and even then I'm still skeptical." He said with a sigh.

"You still haven't given me a straight answer, Soap." Blake said.

He thought for a second, "And to be honest, you probably never will." He said, knowing that that wouldn't be enough to stem her curiosity. However, he had an idea. "Instead of me explaining to you what my parents believed in; I have a better idea." Soap said standing up. He walked over to a weird-looking table that was placed in the center of the stage and grabbed an old, brown leather-bound book. It was obvious that the book was extremely old, but the symbol that was embroidered on the front that made Blake intrigued as to what it would contain. On the front of the book was a cross, the same shape that was above the stage and all over the church. It was also the same shape that she had seen on the necklaces of Soap's team. "I know how much you love books. So instead of me taking hours to explain it, this book will explain everything from the basis of my morals to the reasons as to why I think and act the way I do. I will warn you though, there are things in there that you will not understand, but please understand that the wordings and comparisons are from centuries ago. However if you do have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer them."

He handed her the book and looked at his watch, "You should probably start heading back to your room, the rest of your team should be up soon." He said standing up. He offered a hand to help her up, which she accepted. "When Ruby wakes up, tell that I want to talk to her." Soap said, starting towards the door.

"Where should I tell her to find you?" She asked before he left.

"Tell her to come find me in the garage."

* * *

Walking to the garage, Ruby wondered what Soap wanted to talk to her about.

Opening the door to the garage she saw a car up on stilts with its hood propped up, however, she didn't see the person that had done so. '_Blake said that he was in the garage, right?' _She thought to herself. Not seeing any other course of action, she entered the garage, shutting the door behind her. As she neared the car, she heard the sound of someone working on something and saw what looked to be a pair of legs sticking out from under the car.

"Soap?" She asked.

He looked out from under the car to see who was calling him. "Hey Ruby, perfect timing. You mind giving me a hand real quick?" He asked.

"Sure. What do you need?"

"I need you to hold the timing belt in place while I put the alternator back." He said.

Once they had done so, Soap adjusted the idle speed on the engine then stepped back with a satisfied look on his face. He turned to Ruby and tossed her the keys. "Start er up. Let's see if the adjustments I made work the way I want them to."

Ruby caught the keys and got into the driver's seat, put the keys in the ignition and turned them. With a roar the car purred to life. After a few seconds of listening, Soap was satisfied. He motioned for her to turn the engine off and she did so.

"Work the way you want it to?" She asked.

"Yep."

After a few seconds of quiet, Ruby broke the silence, "As much as I don't mind; I know you didn't just call me down here for me to help out with your car. You wanted to talk to me?" he asked.

"That I did." he said. He paused, "Tell me, Ruby. Before you met me a couple of days ago, have you ever seen me before?" Soap asked while he was putting his tools away. He grabbed his disguise device as it would prove to be useful later.

She took a good look at him and thought for a second. She shook her head, "I have no recollection of ever meeting you before. So no, I have never seen you before. Why do you ask?"

"Because I seem to recall a couple of times that we have met before Beacon. In fact, we had entire conversations together." he said. Ruby looked confused. "Perhaps this will look familiar." he said turning on the device in his hand.

When he turned his disguise on, a couple of things happened. Soap's height dropped eight inches, his hair had a more brown hue to it than it's normal pure white. His hair also no longer had its signature red stripe, he did however still have the black stripe in his hair. His silver-brown eyes now had slightly more silver in them, and the scars that usually took up a large portion of his face were no longer present but the one on his chin and the one above his left eye remained. All in all, he looked to be 11 or 12 years old.

His clothing also changed. His usual light grey-white cloak was now bright red resembling that of Ruby's. His insignia was no longer on his cloak, in fact, there was nothing on his cloak except the color red. His red v-neck t-shirt was now white and also now bore his insignia. His swords were also gone and were replaced with what looked to be a high-caliber, possibly .50, handgun strapped to his right side with several extra clips strapped to his belt.

Ruby immediately knew who the person standing before her was. He was her mother's best friend. Upon seeing how much he had changed over the years, Ruby's face saddened, "What happened to you Soapie?" she asked as she threw him into a hug. "I thought you were dead all these years." she said with tears streaming down her face.

Soap just hugged her and let her cry her tears, as he reached out for Sarah through their bond.

* * *

'_Sarah, You up?' _He asked.

_'Yeah. I'm up.'_

_'Good. I need you to grab some things from my desk. One is a broken insignia that looks like a piece of Ruby's insignia. The other thing is the blueprints to Summer's weapon. The blueprint should be titled "Thorn &amp; Petal". Do you mind bringing them to the garage?' _

_'You talking to Ruby?' _She asked. She previously knew of Soap's plan to inform Ruby of his identity.

_'Yep. Put the blueprints in a drawer at the work bench and hold onto the insignia piece for now, but don't let her see it until I say.'_

_'Got it. On my way.'_

* * *

Sarah appeared in front of the work bench on the other side of the room and placed the blueprints in one of the drawers and she managed to do so without being seen by Ruby. Now she waited for them to make their way to her.

"I haven't seen you since before mom died. Why did you leave without telling us?" Ruby asked Soap, who was still hugging her.

"There's a reason for that." Soap said looking down in shame. "I was with Summer when she died. I did everything I could to save her, but back then I didn't have an aura, all I had was my Deagle and my fighting skills. If I had the skills that I do now back then, Summer would still be with us today." Soap said turning off his disguise. "Before she died, she made me promise her something." Ruby's sobs had slowed to sniffling at this point and looked up when she heard him say this. "She made me promise that I would protect you, since she no longer could. After that, she was gone and there was nothing more I could do. So I called an old friend to bury her." Soap said releasing Ruby from her hug. He started walking towards the work bench and motioned for her to follow him. "Before she died though, she gave me somethings to give to you when I deemed that you were old enough." He reached the work bench and stopped. He turned so that he could see both Sarah and Ruby. "Sarah is currently holding the first of those items." He nodded to Sarah. She brought her arm from behind her and gave Ruby the insignia piece.

Ruby nearly fell to her knees when she saw what Sarah was holding. "Mom's sigil!" she exclaimed. Ruby took the sigil and looked it over in her hands. She flipped it over and looked at back to see 'S.R.' scratched into the back. "What happened to the rest of it?"

"It was destroyed when I fought off Summer's attacker." Soap said. "Ruby, do you remember what color her cloak was?" She asked.

"White..." She said looking at the color of his own cloak.

He realized what she was looking at and connected the dots as to why her voice trailed off when she answered. "Don't worry. This isn't her's." He said quickly, pointing to his cloak. Ruby looked relieved. "Summer was like a mother to me. So as one of the last things that I could do to honor her, I changed the color of my cloak to match her's." he said. "However, look above the work bench behind you."

Ruby turned around and looked. Her eyes widened at what she saw. "Mom's cloak!" She yelled, jumping up to grab it.

Soap smiled, "The last thing that I have to give you is in the top drawer of the bench."

She opened the drawer. Inside were some blueprints to a weapon named 'Thorn &amp; Petal'. Ruby was confused. Why was Soap giving her blueprints? Unless...

"Summer told me where she hid the blueprints for her weapon. She said that you would probably like to look at these." Soap said. "I can't tell you why, but if you decide to build those, do not build the handles."

Ruby was confused.

"Why am I saying if? I know that you will build those swords. After you finish, come find me." Soap said.

"Uhh...OK." Ruby said as she walked to the other side of the garage to another work bench and got to work.

"Hey Ruby," Soap yelled out. She turned around to look at him. "Breakfast is in 10 minutes. Don't miss it."

She nodded and started working.

* * *

****A/N: ********No R.P. section here today. It's just normal SoapiestAuto780 today.****

********I have to admit that I am saddened by a lack of reviews and follows for my story. Any reviews I get, bad or good, motivate me to write more and get stuff out faster. ********I'm always open to suggestions for this story and I will gladly answer any questions or confusion that you might have about the story or any characters, so don't be afraid to ask.****************

****************I also feel like some people might have some confusion on my OCs. I hope that this will clear that up:****************

****************SOAP: Soap is me, I'm not kidding either. If you met me IRL, I act pretty much exactly the same as Soap does in the story; granted that I don't have a tragic back story or a semblance, but he's as close as an OC character will get. Because of this, I plan on using a first person view l****************ater on down the line. Originally he was extremely OP compared to what he is now. He originally had an shit-ton more aura and his original weapon was essentially a combination of Blake, Ruby, and Sun's weapons. However after some considerable rethinking of the weapon, I arrived a the weapons he has now. The Deagle came around from a need for a long-range weapon for him, along with a need to explain why he was able to fight with the level of skill that he does. His original semblance also extremely OP, it was the ability to create ********************************anything that he wanted to at will. He was basically a God. ****************************************************************

********************************SARAH: She is based off of no one and is entirely my design. I came up with her after I started doing drafts for this story and came to the conclusion that Soap was lonely, thus Sarah was born. I originally had her weapons to be two large-ass batons that could combine into a bow and arrow, her semblance was the same though. I came up with her current weapons after I thought about what weapon she could possible make with materials that you would find in the basement of an old orphanage.********************************

********************************DRAKE: Drake was a character that I came up with when I saw the need for an actual team for Soap. I came up with his personality on my own, but his appearance and telecommunication semblance is based off of two characters from another fanfiction that I read that I combined to make one person. The weapons are of my own idea though.********************************

********************************SAM: Sam... Huh. To be honest, I have no clue who or what I based her off of. I guess a little bit of Ruby in regards to her weapon and age, and a little bit of Weiss in regards to her back story. I came up with her semblance because I saw a need for her to be able to fly and glide for extremely long periods of time. I came up with her as a companion for Drake and to complete Soap's Team.********************************

**I hope this clears up some potential confusion.**


	13. Ch 12: odds, and it

****A/N: Well... That last chapter was a thing. Now we just have to wait for Ruby to finish building those swords.****

****Ruby: Can't you just show me now?****

****Soap: Nope. Summer gave me clear instruction to wait until you finished to show you.****

* * *

Chapter 12: odds, and it

* * *

**Five minutes later...**

Sarah walked into the kitchen **(fearing that she would take too long, Soap went back to grab Ruby)** to find the WBY of team RWBY eating breakfast. No doubt Bucky was up, Sarah didn't think that any of the girls knew how to cook.

"Morning girls." she said.

An unceremonious 'morning' could be heard moments later in response. She looked around the kitchen, taking note that Sam and Drake were nowhere to be seen; _probably still...asleep._ She smiled deviously, she had an idea.

"Hey Yang? Do you you like to pull pranks on people?" she asked.

"Oh God." Weiss said disgusted, before she was able to respond.

"Absolutely. Why do you ask?" she responded, suddenly fully awake.

"Sweet. I have a plan if you're willing to participate."

Soap and Ruby walked in just then, "Jeez Sarah, it's been three days and you're just now trying to get them to participate in your pranks?" Soap asked.

"..." was the response he got. Sarah was afraid of being criticized for trying so soon. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Weiss smiling happily.

"About damn time. I was wondering when you were going to recruit them. What do you have in mind?" he asked. Weiss screamed out in confusion.

Sarah did a silent cheer, throwing her hands up in the air. "Sam and Drake are still asleep, right?"

"Yeah." Soap replied. Just then Bucky walked in with a carton of eggs in hand.

"Hey, Bucky?" Sarah asked, as he put the eggs down on the counter.

"Sup." He said, turning around.

"Do we have any extra cans of whipped cream?"

"Yeah, one I think. You need it for something?"

"Yep. You mind grabbing it for me?" Sarah asked.

"Sure. I'll be right back." Bucky said, leaving the room.

"Why do you nee-" Soap started to ask, but realized the answer. "You're getting Yang to prank Sam and Drake. Aren't you?"

"Yeeeaaahhhh." Sarah replied.

Soap sighed. "Ruby. You are not allowed anywhere near their room when this happens."

Ruby looked confused, "Why?"

"How do explain this without being specific and make an older sister mad? Uhhh...You'll find out when you get a boyfriend." Soap said. His words only proved to excite Yang even more than she already was.

"I'm not participating." Weiss replied, with a look of disgust on her face.

"I'm so very confused." Ruby said.

"And please continue to be until you find yourself in a relationship." Weiss said.

"Blake, you in?" Sarah asked.

"Participate? No. Watch? Now that's a different story." She responded with an interested look on her face.

"Soap?"

"I'll watch. I refuse to take the blame for this one." he said as Bucky re-entered the room, and handed her a can.

"Alright Sarah, here's your whipped cream. Enjoy."

* * *

Blake, Sarah, Soap, and Yang were now standing outside the couple's door.

Yang tried the door.

"Locked. How do we get in?" She asked.

Sarah looked at Soap with a devious grin on her face. Soap just crossed his arms and frowned. "Why me?" he asked.

"Because your semblance is less noticeable." Sarah said.

"Ughh fine. Yang, hold still and close your eyes." She did so and disappeared. Seconds later Soap reappeared next to Blake.

"How will they getting out?" She asked.

"The door locks from the inside. They'll be able to get out, IF Drake doesn't kill them first."

"IF?"

"The number of times that he has nearly killed me because of Sarah's pranks, is currently way too damn high. But to be honest, they should have seen this one coming."

Blake raised an eyebrow, "How so?"

"New people, one of whom might be stupid enough to help her with her pranks." Soap replied.

Blake let out a soft chuckle, "Fair enough."

A few minutes had passed before Blake spoke again, "How much longer do you think they'll be?"

Before she even finished asking her question, Soap was already counting, "5. 4. 3. 2. Blake grab my shoulder and close your eyes." Blake obeyed. "1. Zero." As soon as he hit zero, he teleported himself and Blake a few feet further down the hallway when the door exploded open with a laughing Sarah and Yang running from an unclothed and angry Drake.

"SARAH!"

"Well, their up now. Head back to the kitchen, I'll clean this up." Soap said turning around. Blake nodded and headed towards the kitchen.

* * *

**A few minutes later...**

Soap walked in this kitchen with Sam and a now fully clothed Drake.

Soap looked to make sure everyone was there; which everybody was. "Good morning everybody. Starting today, when you are staying here at the church, you are to be here in the kitchen no later than 8:00 each morning. I will then give each of you your individual assignments. Now, before you ask why I am giving you different assignment, let me explain. Each of you specialize in different areas of combat. For instance: Ruby's weapon is a huge ass scythe with a built-in high caliber sniper rifle. The scythe portion of her weapon is close to mid range melee weapon while the sniper rifle portion is a...well, it's a sniper rifle, do I really need to explain it?" He paused for a breath. "It is for this reason that each of you will be getting different assignments regarding combat skills. However, when it comes to your aura and semblances, you will all be taught together but separate."

"Wait, what is that supposed to mean?" Weiss asked, looking confused.

"Together being in the same room. Separate being that the four of us - Sarah, Sam, Drake, and myself - will each be taking one of you and teaching you personally. Aura and semblance training is today's lesson. Weiss you are with Drake. Ruby with Sam. Yang with Sarah, and Blake with me. Everybody will be rotating after a little bit because each of us specialize in doing different things with our semblances. Any questions?" Soap asked. There were none. "Alright then, let's begin. Everybody meet in the GYM in five minutes." Soap put his hand on Drake's shoulder and Sarah put her's on Sam's shoulder. They both teleported to the GYM and waited for the girls to arrive.

* * *

With the girls currently in position, Soap began their lesson.

"Aura. The physical manifestation of the soul, it shields us from our burdens and protects us from harm. All of this you know, and have known for many years. Semblances, a characteristic of our aura. No two are exactly the same. All of you had to unlock your aura yourselves. Am I right?"

There were nods all around.

"Good. You only know of one way to unlock aura, with lots of Dust and spells. Sam's aura was unlocked the same way as your own, while both myself and Drake's aura were unlocked a different way. Our aura was unlocked through the help of another's aura, our help being Sarah and Sam respectively. Sarah's aura was never unlocked, it just was; because of this when she unlocked mine, something strange happened. It will be easier to demonstrate than just explaining."

He held up his right hand, "My semblance," he activated his semblance, engulfing his right hand in flames, "is smoke and fire." He held up his other hand, "While I don't have two semblances like Drake, I can 'barrow' Sarah's semblance." He looked at Sarah, "However, because this is very draining for her, I will only do so at her consent. May I?"

She smiled, "Go for it."

His left hand was soon engulfed with electricity. All of Team RWBY was amazed, he was using two semblances at the same time. "If you want an in depth explanation as to how I am able to do this, please ask me later. That should be a sufficient intro for today's lesson. Everybody go to their assigned instructors. It's time to begin."

The girls separated and went to their assigned instructors.

"Hello Blake. Ready to begin?"

"Yes."

"Let's begin then. Semblances, are a characteristic of one's soul and personality. Your semblance is shadow. Is it not?"

Blake was somewhat confused at this, "My semblance is my ability to create shadow clones, not just shadow."

"That's where you are wrong. Watch." He held up his hand. "Semblances are what we want them to be. For instance, my semblance should not allow me to be able to teleport or fly. At the very most, I should be able to light my weapons on fire, light myself on fire, and throw fire balls. Anything else should not be possible, and yet I can bend my semblance to my will." He opened his palm and activated his semblance. He focused it into his hand in the shape of a ball. His hand fell away to leave the ball of smoke and fire floating in the air. "Grab it."

"Won't it burn me?"

"No. If anything, you might get frostbite. I did say that I could bend my semblance to my will."

Blake grabbed the ball of fire and held it in her hand. It was as Soap said, very cold, "This is amazing."

The ball dissipated, leaving a trail of smoke behind. "If I concentrated hard enough, I could replicate Weiss's glyphs but that's for another day. For now, I want you to try to replicate what I just did."

"How?"

Soap smiled. "Hold out your palm."

"OK." Blake said hesitantly.

"Good. Now, imagine that your semblance was like mine. I want you to focus your semblance into your hand." Soap said.

Blake did as she was told and watched as a ball of darkness formed in her hand. "Wow."

"Now, I want you to close your eyes and visualize the cross that you have seen all over the church, and I want you to make that ball of shadows in your hand into that cross."

After a few minutes, Blake had a fully formed elegant cross in her hands.

"Now, shrink it down, to the size of something that would go on a necklace." The cross shrank. "Good. You are almost done. I want you to put your sigil into the center of the cross on both sides and imagine what you just created as a necklace, chain and all." Blake did as she was told. "Open your eyes."

When she did, she gasped at what she saw, a cross necklace in her hands that bore her symbol.

"One last thing." Soap held up his hand and loosely grabbed the shadow chain. "When you combine two or more semblances; anything that you can create, can become reality." He activated his semblance turning the shadow necklace into a physical necklace.

Blake yelped in surprise as a figment of her imagination became reality in her hands. She stood there looking at what she just created when she realized something. "Your necklace is a cross." She said.

"Yes." Soap confirmed, nodding his head.

"Sam's necklace is a cross, as is Bucky's."

"That's correct."

"And Drake's bracelet is a cross." She paused, "To you, a cross is more than just a symbol representing a second chance."

"Did you just realize this?"

"Yes." She said.

"Do you know why that is?" Blake shook her head no. "A cross is the key to unlocking the past as well as the future." He took a breath, "Not to mention that it's literally the key to the front door."

Blake stared at him in shock.

"What?" Soap asked.

"So...I can't unlock the front door with my scroll."

"Nope."

"WHY?"

"Easy. Scrolls can be hacked. A mechanical, I will not open unless you physically match, lock and key system cannot."

"Why would you even consider doing that?"

"I was, and still am, a bounty hunter. I have hacked my way into people's houses before."

Blake let out a sigh. "Fair enough."

"Time to switch."

* * *

After another couple of hours, every member of team RWBY had keys to the church and completed the day's lesson.

Soap, being Soap, headed to the sanctuary to unwind after training with a few songs, however he found that he wasn't alone. His 'shadow' had followed him.

"You know' for a shadow, you really aren't all that stealthy." Soap said to seemingly no one.

Blake appeared in front of him. "That's really creepy how you're able to do that, you know?"

"I have two things to say to that. One, bounty hunter. I get paid to track people down and bring them to the authorities. Two, you are saying that me being able to hear you is creepy, is coming from someone who was trying to stalk me."

"Alright, fair enough."

"I know that you don't follow people for fun; what's on your mind?" Soap asked.

"I started reading that book you gave me. And I have a few questions."

"Before you ask, I have a few of my own for you. Did you make it past the Old Testament?" **(Yes I am referencing the bible, and I trying to make all of this as least offensive as I can. However, I can only do so much without botching the story.)**

"Yes, I am now into the book of John. But my questions are not about what I am reading; they are about the music that came from it."

"Ask away."

"All of the songs that were written, were written with the knowledge that their authors would be persecuted for what they believed in, possibly even killed. Why?"

He thought for a moment before responding, "Have you ever believed in something so strongly that it started a fire within your soul?"

Blake thought for a second. "No. I can't say that I have."

"I didn't think so." He paused, "Do you know the story behind this necklace of mine?"He asked, holding up his necklace for her to see. Blake shook her head. "It belonged to one my ancestors'. I don't know exactly where he was in my family tree other than he lived sometime during the Grimm War. I know that he was considered a hero among his people; he sacrificed himself to save them. He was a lot like me, a lot the same interests, thought processes and such. And yet he managed to incredible things."

"What was his name?"

Soap turned away, "I don't know."

"How do you know this if there are no documents that tell us what happened during the Grimm War?"

Soap smiled, "I know because I have seen parts of his memory." Blake looked extraordinarily confused when he said this. Soap held up his necklace, "This necklace is different than yours; much, much different. While yours was built with no other purpose than to be a key, his was made with the intent of being a vessel."

"I don't understand."

"Basically, this necklace contains some of his memories, his aura, and his semblance. Before you ask, I don't know how." She nodded in understanding. "Remember the question I asked you about your soul being lit on fire; well...this is why." He held out his hand. Blake grabbed it. "Everything that I am about to show to you has only been seen by one other pair of eyes on the planet, those eyes belonging to Sarah. What you are about to see is the moment that his soul was set ablaze and the person he became 10 years later. Ready?" She nodded.

Soap's necklace started to glow with an unearthly light. Soon the entire room was filled with that same light, every second looking more like a sort of glowing smoke. Eventually, the smoke turned into distinguishable shapes; shapes of people, humans and fanus alike. As the glow intensified, the people began to move. In fact, the entire room was moving. No, more than moving, it was alive. The air was filled with music that Blake had never heard before. She listened carefully to the words that were being said. 'Some might call me crazy but I'm no fool, I will dare to believe.'

Inside of her, Blake felt warmth and comfort overtake her as the music continued on. She turned to Soap, except Soap wasn't standing where he was standing before; instead the image of, who she assumed to be, Soap's ancestor and looked in his eyes. She saw what Soap had described minutes before. His soul on fire, passion burning within him.

Then the scenery changed, Blake was no longer standing among the crowd that was surrounding the stage, she was on it. She took a few steps back and took in her surroundings. The man was not in the crowd, he was where she was standing moments before with a guitar in hand, singing his heart out. She walked around him and looked into his eyes. When she did, she saw the same fire burning within him that she had seen moments before. The only difference being that the fire was evidently much stronger. She turned and looked out to the crowd, and man what a crowd, and looked into their eyes. In a lot of them, she saw the same look that the man had. In others she saw the fire just beginning to burn in humans and fanus alike.

In the instance that she was re-living, with the music blaring 'this is our time, this is our place, this is our moment', humans and fanus were together as one, the very thing that she wanted more than anything. She turned to look at Soap, she didn't expect what she saw.

Soap's eyes were filled with both joy and sadness. They were filled with a sense of longing to be in that moment in time, to be a part of the memory that he was watching. It almost looked like he missed what he was seeing. He wiped a tear away from his eyes; when he saw Blake looking at him, he turned away so that she couldn't see his eyes.

The glow that was coming from Soap's necklace started to fade, and the scene faded to old sanctuary that they started in. Blake took another look around the room and two things caught her eyes, Soap's guitar and the cross above the stage.

"That guitar, it was his, isn't it?" She asked. Soap nodded in response. "This is the very room where that all happened, isn't it?"

"Yes, I did say that that cross above me was one of the reasons that I bought this place; you now know another." He checked the time, "I think we've talked enough for tonight, it's 10:30. Just a heads up for you and your team; you will be spending the next few weeks at Beacon." Soap said turning to leave.

"Wait!"

Soap stopped.

"When will we see you again?" She asked.

"Dr. Oobleck's class tomorrow. I will be speaking to him before class; after which my team and I will be giving a lecture for during his class. Afterwards, we have a couple of loose ends that need to be tied up elsewhere in the world. However, If I think that you and the rest of your team's skills might prove useful; I will let you all know and send the Bullhead to go pick you up." He turned back around to leave, "Goodnight Blake."

* * *

****A/N: No R.P. Section today. Regular SoapiestAuto780 here today.****

****Wow. It feels so weird typing out my entire name instead of the shortened version, well...after only using the shortened version for so long anyways.****

****Please don't chew me up for the biblical references, I have my reasons and if you really want to know them; send me a P.M, do not post a review, and I will explain to the best of my abilities.  
****

****If you can get past the references, I hope that you will stick with me through my story. I have to admit that while most of what I type is in the spur of the moment stuff; I do plan to keep this story going for at least 117 chapters, if not more. And w********hile I don't have a lot planned, I do have a couple major plot points and the general ending of this story. ****

****Anyways enough of my rambling, ONWARDS TO THE NEXT CHAPTER!****


	14. Ch 13: is hope that

****A/N: Finally. I can tell a chapter that I've had from day one.****

****Sarah: Really?****

****Soap: For once, I can actually say yes to that question; I have had this in my head in one form or another since before you had weapons.****

****Sarah: Fair enough.****

****Soap: With that said, let's begin the story.****

* * *

Chapter 13: is hope that

* * *

**The next day...**

After dropping off team RWBY at the front of the school and receiving directions from Ozpin as to where to park his Bullhead, Soap led his team to Ozpin's office to introduce them to him like he promised.

Sam, Bucky and Drake waited patiently outside the door while Soap and Sarah walked in first, "Good morning Ozpin." Soap said.

Ozpin looked up from his desk and replied, "Good morning you two." He stood up and walked to the front of his desk.

"We're here to introduce you to some people like we promised." Soap said. He turned to the door, "Come on in guys."

Soap wasn't sure if Ozpin was impressed, disappointed, or scared for Beacon's future, by the people that walked through the door. After Ozpin gave his teammates a good look over, he turned to Soap, "I'm surprised."

"Why is that?" Soap asked.

"Mainly two reasons. One, you never told me the range of ages that your team had."

"You never asked." Soap replied.

"That's true. If you don't mind me asking, what_ is_ the age range of your team?"

"The youngest on my team is 15 while the oldest is 21. What is the other reason?"

"I didn't know that Sam Krestfield was still alive." He said. "The last I heard was that she disappeared a little over a year ago, never to be seen since."

Sam looked surprised, or embarrassed; Soap couldn't decide which. Ozpin was the first person to recognize her since Soap had found her. "Officially, I am very much dead." She replied. "However, I don't go by that name anymore. Thanks to Soap, my name is Sam Krest." She held out her hand, "It's nice to meet you Professor Ozpin."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Sam." Ozpin said, shaking her out stretched hand.

Bucky introduced himself next; he took a step forward, "Hello Professor Ozpin; my name is Andeus McGillicudy, but please call me Bucky."

"And I shall. It's a pleasure to meet you." Ozpin said, shaking his hand.

Bucky stepped back.

Next was Drake. He looked at Soap and connected his mind to Soap's and asked, _"Do you mind introducing me to him and explain why I can't talk; I will say hi afterwards."_

_"Sure."_ Soap replied to him wordlessly. He did just that, but not in the way that Drake was expecting. "And finally we have our rather weak, unskilled, shy, timid, and silent friend, Drake Hemington." Soap said. Sam punched his arm while Ozpin just raised an eyebrow.

Drake connected his mind to everybody in the room, walked to Soap and punched him in the stomach, _"Damn it Soap! You know that wasn't what I meant!" _Soap knew Drake would try to punch him for the statement that he made and reacted accordingly, he teleported himself away just in time, avoiding the punch.

Ozpin looked around for a second and confused, "Who said that?" Drake turned and waved.

_"That was me sir."_

Ozpin looked a little less confused but still had a few questions, "Why are you not actually speaking?"

_"I was a hostage of the White Fang between ages 12-16. During that time, they used me as a practice dummy for fighting and torture techniques. The last of those techniques being the removal of my vocal chords and my arms."_ Drake tilted his head up and traced the scar on his neck where the White Fang had cut to get to his vocal chords.

"But you have arms." Ozpin said.

Drake held up his left arm and grabbed it just below the elbow. He gave it a twist, and to Ozpin's surprise it turned. Drake pulled it off with ease revealing a stump of an arm.

"You have a prosthetic arm." Ozpin observed.

_"Two prosthetic arms." _He held up his other arm and in less than a second, his right hand was replaced with a sword.

"I see. Did you build these yourself?" Ozpin asked.

_"How could I have been able to? They were built while I was unconscious, so no. The designer and builder of these arms is none other than the man who leads us. Soap." _Drake said as he reattached his left arm.

Ozpin turned to Soap, "Do you mind sending me the blueprints to those? I am interested in taking a look at the design."

"Sure." Soap replied. He made a mental note to send him a modified version of the blueprints to him later. Modified because he didn't want to give away all of his secrets.

"So, Sarah, Bucky, Sam, and Drake," said Ozpin, they all turned to face him, "why do you follow Soap as a leader?" he asked.

They all looked to Soap, who just stood there with a smile on his face, then to each other. Sarah spoke up for the group and turned to face Ozpin, "We follow him because he gave us a second chance. For some of us this means literal life and death. For others, it meant a chance at starting over, a clean slate if you will, and redemption for things that we thought were inexcusable and unforgivable. We follow Soap because even though he knew all of these things about us, he choose to look past that. That's why we follow him."

Ozpin nodded. He turned his attention to Soap, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why give them a second chance?" Ozpin asked.

"Because I was given a second chance at life when the rest of the village I lived in was executed by thugs for what they believed in; my parents, friends, and sister among them." Soap said. "It's funny. 120 years ago, the things that my parents believed in, was considered common sense; but look at the world now, what they believed is seen nowhere. I was the last follower of what they believed in and the only person on Remnant that knows the truth about the Grimm War. If at all possible, I would like to speak with Dr. Oobleck about this."

Ozpin looked at him and said, "Dr. Oobleck's class starts in thirty minutes. Today's lecture is about the Grimm War. I'll let him know that a guest will be speaking today. What will you say?"

Soap smiled, "I will tell them about the reason we nearly lost that fight, along with the things we lost because of it. Something that my team knows well, an art that nobody has seen nor heard for more than 100 years."

"Very well. I will inform Dr. Oobleck of your arrival."

* * *

"Hello. Are you Dr. Oobleck?" Soap said upon entering the classroom with his team.

The professor at the front of the room moved quickly to various points around the room. At the sound of his name, he looked to see who had said it. "Yes. That's my name."

"Ozpin said that he has informed you that we will be speaking during your class today." Soap said.

Oobleck nodded, "Ah yes he has. That would make you Instructor Soap and Team BNTY."

"Yes. Yes it would." He made his way towards the desk on the other side of the room with his team, stopping just in front of it. "I have some information regarding the Grimm War."

"I would prefer it if you waited till my class arrives to tell me of this information." Oobleck said.

"That's the thing. I wish to speak to you about the manner in which I were to present this information, but first I have a question. 150 years ago, what did the world sound like compared to now?"

"What it sounded like," he thought for a moment, "I am afraid that I cannot answer that question. There are no known documents that could suggest what the world were to sound like, 150 years ago. Why do you ask?"

"Because the Grimm War forced us to abandon a lot of what we had; the biggest being how it sounded. Sounds that filled the world; every coffee shop, every home and every public place. I will save the rest for the class." Soap said. He turned to his team, "Sarah, Drake. I want you two to grab what we will need for three songs. I've sent the names of which to your scrolls. Sarah, while your there, I want you to grab five projectors and five mini-disguises." They nodded.

Sarah put her hand on Drake's shoulder and activated her semblance. Within minutes, they returned with what they needed and scattered them across the front of the room in a display like fashion. The finishing piece was the Cajun-box that Drake put in the center of the stage-like area near Oobleck's desk.

With that finished, the only thing that they had left to do was activate their mini-disguises, they now looked like students, and wait for class to start.

* * *

They all sat at a table at the back of the room and waited for the bell to ring.

Soap sent the girls of Team RWBY a message:  
_Make sure that you aren't late for Dr. Oobleck's class, I hear he has something special cooked up for everybody today. -Soap_

Pressing send, he put away his scroll and went to Oobleck's desk and said, "Dr. If you could, just start class as you normally would. Mention that there are guests speaking today, but do not mention who they are specifically. I have a bit of a show planned."

"Of course." He replied. Soap went back to his seat.

Students started pouring in. Soap spotted RWBY and watched them take a seat towards the front of the room. He smiled, they have the most knowledge as to what they were going to see and yet they probably didn't have a clue.

The bell rang and Oobleck began as Soap had instructed, "Hello class, welcome back. Today is going to be a little different than normal. Some individuals have stepped forward to fill in some of the holes that were left by the destruction of the Grimm War, but before they begin, I'm going to simply state that I do not know what they will be talking about, however, I do know that it will be interesting. So let us not waste anymore of their time."

After Oobleck took an open seat among the students. Less than a second passed before a holographic screen appeared in the center of the stage-area by the professors desk.

Soap tapped Drake's shoulder, who turned to look at him. He tapped his temple and pointed to the rest of his team, signaling for Drake to connect their minds.

_"Done." _He heard Drake say in his mind.

_"Alright guys, connect your headset to the speakers around the room. It's show time!" _Soap said. He took out his scroll and connected it to the screen at the front of the room, he began to type '150 years ago, The world looked and sounded very different that it does today.' The words appeared on the screen. 'While we can't do very much in showing you how it looked, we can do a lot in regards to showing you how it sounded.' Soap looked to his team and nodded. Drake activated his projector, a near perfect image appeared on the stage. The projector was designed to make a holographic representation of the user with the color representing their semblance; Drake's was blue which represented ice. The image walked up to the Cajun-box and sat down on top of it. **(if you don't know what a Cajun-box is, go look it up)**

Soap typed again, 'Nearly 120 years ago, we lost something that was invaluable to life.' Soap typed one last time before putting away his scroll, 'This is an example of what we lost.' The last sentence appeared on the screen and fell away after a couple of seconds.

Soap held up his hand so that only his team could see and counted to four to indicate the tempo of the song. ***cue Rather Be by Pentatonix* **

* * *

**(let me quickly just say that Sarah is Soprano, Sam is Alto, Bucky is Tenor, Soap is Bass, Drake is the beat-boxer/percussion. Even though Drake can't speak, he can still use his mouth as a normal person would be able to, just not to talk, this includes beat-boxing.)**

Drake's image made eight claps before Sam's flowing white image appeared behind Drake's. Her image put it's arms around Drake's image's neck affectionately. She sang her part into her headset on time. After Sam sang her part, two more boxes appeared next to Drake's, one of which Sam sat on. After Sam sat down, Bucky appeared on the last box and sang his part. When it was his turn, Soap appeared standing next to Bucky with his arms outstretched. Finally Sarah's turn came, her image appeared in Soap's outstretched arms so that it appeared that he was carrying her. He set her down as she started to sing her part and got ready for the rest of the song.

**(Sarah is singing the words below. I highly suggest looking up the song to get an idea of what it sounds like.) **

_We're a thousand miles from comfort, we have traveled land and sea_  
_But as long as you are with me, there's no place I'd rather be_

_I would wait forever, exalted in the scene_  
_As long as I am with you, my heart continues to beat_

_With every step we take, Kyoto to The Bay_  
_Strolling so casually_  
_We're different and the same, gave you another name_  
_Switch up the batteries_

_If you gave me a chance I would take it_  
_It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it_  
_Know with all of your heart, you can't shame me_  
_When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be_

_N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_  
_N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_  
_N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_

_We staked out on a mission to find our inner peace_  
_Oh, make it everlasting so nothing's incomplete_

_With every step we take, Kyoto to The Bay_  
_Strolling so casually_  
_We're different and the same, gave you another name_  
_Switch up the batteries_

_If you gave me a chance I would take it_  
_It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it_  
_Know with all of your heart, you can't shame me_  
_When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be_

_N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_  
_N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_  
_N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_

_When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be_

_If you gave me a chance I would take it_  
_It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it_  
_Know with all of your heart, you can't shame me_  
_When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be_

_N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_  
_N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be  
__N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_

_When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be_

***End Song***

* * *

As the end of the song approached, Soap and his team left their table and walked to the front of the room and stood behind their respective projection.

Soap turned off his disguise, the process surprising almost everybody in the room. He looked around the room and landed his gaze on the Professor. "This is what the world has missed for many, many years. This is what the world lost during the years of the Grimm War." He motioned for his team to turn off their disguises, a gasp sounding throughout the room as they did so. "My name is Soap. Leader of team BNTY. This is my partner, Sarah Hearts."

She waved, "Hello."

"This is Sam, her partner Drake, and finally Bucky." Soap pointed to each of his teammates respectively, who waved when their name was said.

"Before we continue, are there any quest-" Sarah started to say but was cutoff by a rather familiar voice; the same racist voice that tried to discriminate against her when she first arrived at Beacon. A voice that belonged to none other than, Cardin Winchester.

"What have those animals done to gain the right to teach a class?" Cardin said, not bothering to hide the demeaning tone in his voice.

Soap teleported himself to Cardin, taking him by surprise. Cardin stood up, trying to intimidate Soap. "You got a problem with something I said?"

Soap looked at Sarah and gave her a questioning look. She shook her head no in response to his unspoken question: 'Do you care about what he said?' He looked back to Cardin who was standing with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. "Yes. I have a problem. Two actually. One, you completely disregarding the warning I gave to you regarding discrimination, especially regarding my girlfriend or team. Two, it seems that you do not know how to show respect to your superiors." This made Cardin really confused, what the hell was this kid talking about? "What? Didn't you get the memo? My team and I are instructors here at Beacon."

"How did a bunch of kids manage to get hired by Beacon?"

"Simple. For my team, the fact that they _are_ my team was how they got hired. As for me though, I'll let that be a mystery to you Mr. Winchester. Now please, sit down." Cardin's face was full of confusion when he sat back down, the way that Soap wanted. "Now, are there any questions?"

One hand shot up. The hand belonged to a Fanus as indicated by the two bunny ears that were sticking out over her head. By the look on her face Soap could tell that she was a little shy, and he had good guess as to why. "What were you even doing?" She asked timidly.

"Doing with what?" Soap asked.

"With your voices."

Soap smiled, "That would be called singing." As expected, his response only made her confused.

"Allow me to clarify, but before I do, let me get some vocabulary out of the way." Soap said.

* * *

**A few minutes later...**

**(I figured that you didn't want to read about Soap explaining all of the terms for music, as such, I left said section out.)**

"The song that we just performed was called_ 'Rather Be'_, that was a rather unique song because it was meant to be played with only the voices of those performing it." Soap said concluding his explanation of some of the terms that he would be using. "Any other questions?"

A hand shot up in the back of room, "What was Drake's role in that song?"

Soap turned to look at his teammate, "I think I'll let him explain that."

Drake looked at Soap and asked to only his team, _"Do I have to explain?"_

"Yes Drake you have to explain, I am not doing it for you."

_"Can I use my scroll?" _Drake asked.

"Drake, your talking to a class; so no you cannot use your scroll."

Dr. Oobleck spoke up, "Soap, You do realize that he hasn't said a word?"

"He has said plenty, just not to anyone who want's to hear it. Drake, please explain what your role was in that song."

Drake sighed heavily, _"My role in that song was to provide a steady beat for which my team, including this asshole," _he pointed to Soap, _"to sing to. Without a steady beat, songs would fall apart the second they started."_ The class looked around for a second before he quickly added, "_Before you all ask why my voice is in your head; I have no vocal chords and telecommunication is part of my semblance."_

The class collectively let out and "ohhh" after hearing that last part.

Soap let a small laugh and looked at his scroll, realizing the time, "If anybody else has questions, come find us in courtyard after class." Soap turned to the professor, "Dr, the class is once again all yours." Oobleck nodded. Soap and his team gathered their things and walked to Soap and Sarah in the middle of the room, making sure that some portion of their body was touching them, "Bye guys." Soap said before teleporting himself and his team back to their rooms.

* * *

**A/N: Well that's another chapter out.**

**Sarah: Took ya long enough.**

**Soap: Oh hush you. You know you enjoyed it.**

**Sarah: Well...**

**Soap: That's what I thought. See you all next time.**


	15. Ch 14: gives us the

****A/N: I have a surprise for you guys if you make it to the end of the chapter.****

****Drake: _Is it cake?_  
****

****Soap: What is it with you and food? And no, it's not cake.****

****Drake: _Then what is it?_****

****Soap: Get to the end of the chapter and you'll find out.****

* * *

****Edit: 3-26-2015; Although I will be, if I haven't already finished, rewriting the chapters to be in first person up to this point; this chapter will remain unchanged as a testimony of sorts for just how far I have come as way of writing this story.****

* * *

Chapter 14: gives us the

* * *

Now back in the room that was provided to them by Ozpin; Soap was laying on his bed, typing out a message to his teammates regarding their next mission. They would be visiting Soap's home away from home. An abandoned, Grimm War era, military stronghold situated in the mountains west of Atlas and north of Vacuo, **(see A/N at the bottom of chapter) **to make their yearly maintenance of said base. Sending the message, Soap thought back to when he found the base.

* * *

3 years ago, he was chasing a bounty that originated in the kingdom of Mistral, when the criminal fled to the base in a last ditch attempt to lose Soap. Needless to say, the criminal failed to escape him; Soap secured his bounty and returned to Vale to retrieve his reward. Afterwards, Soap returned to the base to uncover clues as to the possible whereabouts of his bounty's cohorts. What he found, was something else entirely. He found what was once the largest military base in the world.

Smiling, Soap thought to himself, _'3 years and the thing's so damn huge that I still haven't explored it all. Oh well, something for me to do later.'_

* * *

About an hour later, all of Team BNTY was gathered in the hanger of Beacon Academy.

"Alright guys, over the next couple of days, we will be visiting my home away from home for routine maintenance. This will be Sam and Drake's first time there, so Sarah and Bucky, you two will be in charge of making sure that they don't get lost." Soap said, starting up the ramp of their Bullhead.

"Is it really that big?" Sam asked, following him up the ramp.

"Actually, yes it is. It was once considered the largest military stronghold in the world. Even I still haven't explored it all." Soap said.

_"How long will it take to get there?"_ Drake asked.

"A couple of days. Why do you ask?"

_"A couple of days. Couldn't you and Sarah just teleport us there?"_

"No." Soap responded.

"Why not?" Sam asked.

"I wish we could teleport there." Sarah said. "However, it's just too damn far; if we were to try, we would end up in the ocean."

"Oh. O.K." Sam said as she sat down in her seat.

"You guys get some rest, Sarah and I will swap out flying." Soap said, starting up the Bullhead's engines. Before he took off, he sent a message to Team RWBY and Ozpin telling them that they would be out of contact for a couple of weeks, the round trip combined with the maintenance time would all together take about three weeks, and that he would send for RWBY if he needed them. The message sent, he pushed more power to engines and took off.

* * *

**A couple of days later...**

Soap and his team arrived at their destination, Delta Base. Entering the base, they headed to what was the command center.

"Why is it that when I think I've finally seen it all, you decide to bring us to another part of your mysterious past?" Sam asked as they entered the room.

_'That's right. Sam and Drake haven't been here before today.' _Soap thought to himself, "Because I have perfect timing like that." he responded.

"What is this place anyways?" she asked.

"It used to be an old military base nearly 100 years ago during the Grimm War. This is Delta base. Legend has it that this was the very place where a General sacrificed himself to save the men and women that he commanded. It was that sacrifice that ended the war." Soap said, turning on the power for the base.

"Wow. What was his name again?" Sam asked.

"General Gunnel."

"I got that he was a general, and that his last name was Gunnel, but what was his first name?"

Soap turned away, "I don't know, nobody does. After all, they're only legends; not fact." Looking at the screen in front of him, he selected a few floors for the cameras to scan. Soap had, since finding Delta base, overhauled all the major systems. And although he technically "explored" the entire base while doing this, back then, he didn't have an aura or semblance. All he had was his Desert Eagle and a flashlight; needless to say that he strayed as little as possible from the systems he was upgrading.

The scan that came back showed an irregularity on some of the lower floors; there was a massive hole in them. **(A/N)**

"Hey guys. Why don't you all get settled in? The barracks are down the hall and should be through the third door on the left." Soap said, trying not to create any worry.

"Sure. You coming with?" Sam asked.

"Nah. I got to check on something on one of the lower floors." he turned to Sarah, "You want to come Sarah?"

She shrugged, "Why not?"

"We'll see you guys in a bit." Soap said, extending a hand to Sarah which she took. Soap teleported them to the lowest floor showing the holes.

* * *

"What did you want to check out down here?" Sarah asked.

"Some of the floors I selected the system to scan, showed a massive hole in them." Soap responded.

"Where at?"

"Down the hall, left at the intersection."

"Alright." Sarah said, walking the direction Soap had pointed out.

They couple made their way down the hallway, rounded the conner and stopped dead in their tracks.

* * *

**Soap 1st Person**

'Wow' was all that I could think to say when we turned the corner; we weren't ready for what we saw.

Sarah let out a low whistle in awe, "That's some hole."

"I'll say!" I responded, very impressed with the hole's size.

Walking forward, we reached the first doorway where we would be able to inspect the hole. Upon entering, I could see that this was no ordinary hole, it was a hole that would have been left after some sort of massive explosion. As I moved towards the wall, the atmosphere around me changed. Almost like the universe was judging me as to whether or not I could be there.

As I closed in on the wall, time seemed to slow down. I stopped for a second and looked around. I swear that I saw the apparition of a woman, a solider, standing by one of the consoles, staring at me. I just stood there, watching her.

The ghost turned to the console beside her; when she did, I could see on the shoulders of her uniform, a symbol that signified a Colonel status. As she sighed, she hit a button on the console and disappeared.

I honestly thought that I just was seeing things, it had been a long past four days after all. Giving a shrug, I continued with Sarah towards the wall.

About 10 feet from the wall, I saw something on the ground. A box or plaque of some sort. I knelt down to get a better look. "Hey Sarah, come take a look at this."

"What did you find Soap?"

"This." I said pointing to the mysterious plaque, accidentally touching it in the process. It moved. "What the hell?" I watched as a column, with the plaque on top, rose from the ground stopping about chest height. Carved into it were the words: _In honor of he who died to ensure that we would not._

After I finished reading it, a voice came on over the speakers; a recording from the sound of it, "You gave up your life for us, for me. In the midst of war, you kept us all together. Human, fanus, men and women - everybody. No matter how many times we lost, it was you who told us to get back up again, and we did. We fought with all that we had. Yet, our efforts weren't enough and we were massacred on the battlefield. You watched it happen time and time again, and you were tired of it. So, you took matters into your own hands; you gave up your life so that we could live on. Your sacrifice led us to victory in what will henceforth be known as the Grimm War." My blood froze. _So the legends were true._ "And for that, we are all grateful. General Gunnel, you will be dearly missed. I am proud to say that I served under you." The feminine voice stopped to take a breath. _Who are you mystery voice?_ "By the time, you, my child find this, the truth of who fought the war, how we fought it, and ultimately how the war was won, will have been lost to the whims of time. I pray that you are able to put the pieces back together and let the truth be known about this godforsaken, fucked up war. This is Colonel Amanda Silverlight, signing off. Good luck to you, whoever you are." The recording ended.

I turned to Sarah with wide eyes, "We need to get Dr. Oobleck in here! Now!"

* * *

****A/N: Delta Base is located in the mountainous region of the giant dragon shaped island at the top of the map.****

****By a massive hole, I mean that part of the base and part of the mountain was missing.****

****Now, for the surprise that I promised at the beginning of the chapter, I give you...a sneak peak of an upcoming chapter. Enjoy.****

* * *

"What is it?" I asked entering the room.

"To be honest Soap, I don't know. Nor do I want to know, the answer is yours to know and those who you choose to share it with. I'd best be leaving." the man said as he swiftly left the the room, leaving me alone.

I turned around to look at the screen, "Well, time to find out what the hell happened here." I pushed play on the screen and watched.

**VIDEO START**

"Why?" a feminine voice asked a disfigured person lying on the ground, pieces of his lower body thrown all across the room.

"Why what, Colonel?" the man asked.

"You gave up your life to save us; why General?"

The man on the ground sighed, "Amanda, please address me by my name."

The woman, Amanda, looked confused and angry at the same time, "Dammit Chris! You're dying! Why would you possibly care about what I call you?"

The man on the ground said nothing.

Amanda sighed, "We could have spent the rest of time together; we could have lived forever. Now, now neither of us can."

Chris let out a sigh. "This war had to end one way or another; I chose another."

The woman knelt beside Chris, grabbed what was left of his right hand and looked him in the eyes, "I do not resent you for what you did. If anything, I am jealous that you acted instead of I. But you still have not explained your reasoning."

Chris let out a soft chuckle, "For 10 generations I have lived; during this time, I have seen victory and I have seen defeat. I have experienced happiness, joy, sorrow, anger, sadness, hate," he turned his head in the direction of Amanda, "and love. I have seen my men slaughtered before me. Thousands of men and women that served under me, lost their life fighting to try and end this war. Each and every one of those soldiers thought of me as a father; just as I considered them my children. I watched as they ran to their deaths'; but ultimately their deaths were to of no avail and amounted to nothing. I was tired of watching needless death."

"So you did something about it."

"Exactly." Chris said with a smile.

"For what?"

He laughed again, this time bringing up some blood in doing so, "I have seen both sides of the grave, multiple times. Life and Death. I have gained lifetimes of wisdom during these cycles, knowledge that I refuse to let be wasted." Chris coughed up some more blood, it wouldn't be long before he was gone and he knew it. Amanda gripped his hand tighter. "This knowledge must be passed on through the generations." He reached up to his neck and grabbed his necklace, yanking it off. His hand was shaking now. He grabbed his loved one's hand and placed the necklace inside. "This war is far from over. Give this to our children, and tell them to pass it on to their children. Let it serve as reminder that this war is far from over. When the time comes and it enters the hands of he who is able; he will will end this war, once and for all. Promise me," He coughed again, "Promise me that you will do that."

"I promise." She said as she planted a kiss on his lips.

With all that was needed to be said, said; His strength began to fail him. He went limp and let go of Amanda's hand. Before all of his life left him, he uttered one last phrase, "I love you Amanda."

"I love you too Chris, and I always will." The woman broke down into tears as the video ended.

**VIDEO END**

I was left speechless. This was the General's last moments. I was amazed that such a video existed. I thought about what he had said when a thought hit me. I re-wound the video to just before the General finally bled out. I reached the spot and paused the video. Searching the screen, I found what I was looking for. Seeing it, a chill went down my spine.

"What the hell?"

* * *

**Well, I hope I didn't give away too much plot. Let me know what you think. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.**


	16. Ch 15: strength and the

****A/N: Alright, So. As you saw in the last scene in the last chapter, I have finally figured out how to write in first person. Somewhat decently. With that said, I will for the most part be writing in 1st person from now on as Soap. Also, we have reached a point in my story where I have too many things I want to do with it than I can actually do. At least in this rendition of the story. But I digress, let's begin.  
****

* * *

Chapter 15: strength and the

* * *

I was still trying to fully process what I had just heard when my radio sparked to life. "Soap? What was that?" Bucky said on the other end.

"To be honest with ya, I have no clue. It just sort of...happened." I said into my ear-piece. "Sarah and I will be up in a second. We will discuss it then."

I turned to Sarah and asked, "You ready to head up?"

"Yeah, I've had enough excitement for one day. Let's head up." She put her hand in mine and I teleported us out of the massive creator.

* * *

When we arrived back upstairs in the command center, Bucky was there waiting for us.

"What the heck did you two do down there?" He asked.

"We found something. A plaque that, if what we heard and what was inscribed on the plaque was true, will change what we know about the events of the Grimm War." I replied.

"A plaque? What did it say on it?"

"In honor of he who died to ensure that we would not." I replied.

Bucky nodded, "That'll do it. What are we going to about it though?"

"We need to get Dr. Oobleck in here to see if he can find anything else on this. It's a fucking treasure trove of information down there."

"O.K. That sounds like a plan. There's only one problem..."

What else do I have to worry about? "What's that?" I asked.

"We're out of range to contact them by scroll." Bucky replied.

"Oh. That's not a problem. I have something that will solve that." I said as I exited the room, heading to the hanger.

I did in fact have a plan to deal with the distance, however, it would still take days for Oobleck to show up. Now that I think about it, if Bucky was able to hear that recording then it must have been broadcasting over all of the speakers in the base. Oh shit! ALL the speakers in the base, inside and out. Creatures of grimm would have definitely heard that and will come to investigate. Well, this should be fun. I think I might need RWBY for this. I'll make sure Ozpin sends them as well.

* * *

Finally in the hanger, I made my way up the ramp of my Bullhead. When I built the thing, I made sure to install an autopilot system should the need arise. Looks like I finally found a reason to use it. I made my way to the center console and, after navigating the menus, accessed the autopilot function and set the Bullhead's destination to Beacon. Before I left though, I made sure to record a message that would send itself to Ozpin once it was in range of Beacon.

I did one last check over everything and decided that it was good to go. I exited the aircraft and watched as it flew away at an unrivaled speed. It would probably reach Beacon in a couple of days since it flew much faster when no one was on board. However it would still be a while before anything came back.

The Bullhead finally out of view, I made my way back to the command center; It was going to be a long couple of days and I had a fight to prepare for.

* * *

****(going back to 3rd person here.)****

**Two days later...**

Ozpin was sitting in his office watching the sun set when his scroll went off. Checking it he saw that he had a voice message. He checked the sender and saw that it was from Soap._Soap...hmmm. That's odd. He knows that if he needs me, he can just call me or simply come see me. Unless he got into a situation. I wonder..._

His thoughts trailed off as he hit play on the message.

_"This is a recording. Ozpin, this is Soap. I am going to need Dr. Oobleck, team RWBY, and some long-range communication equipment sent to my location right away. We have found something. Something that could confirm legends and change what we know about recorded history. Where we, myself and my team, are; I am afraid I cannot say. I am not willing to risk what we have found. But if Oobleck can confirm my suspicions, all that is considered fact about the Grimm War, is a lie. I'm afraid that that is all that I am willing to say over an open channel. Have RWBY and the Dr. pack enough food for four days and to come prepared to fight Grimm. When I say food for four days, I am referring to the food necessary to get over here. I promise that once I receive that communication equipment, I will contact you personally. Around now, my Bullhead is on it's way back to Beacon, probably about an hour out. It's currently on autopilot so please make sure that my usual landing pad is clear so it will land without anything getting in it's way. It will not stop until it touches the ground. As soon as it does and everybody is on-board, it will automatically start it's return trip to my location. You have my thanks ahead of time Ozpin."_

Not once has Ozpin not trusted Soap's judgment, with this in mind, he sent a message to the Dr. and team RWBY with the mission details Soap had enclosed.

"I only hope that you are right my friend." Ozpin said aloud to himself.

* * *

"Ruby Rose! When you do math homework, you need to show your work!" Weiss said in annoyance. Blake and Yang were doing their homework quietly on their separate beds, trying to ignore the heiress.

"But Weiss..."

"No! I refuse to have my team leader get another barely passing grade on an assignment."

"Why shou-" Just then her scroll went off. "Hold that thought." She looked at the message she received. "Alright Team RWBY! We have our first mission! We have to be at the landing pad in an hour."

"What?! The school year just started. The forth-years haven't even gotten missions yet. How do we have a mission already?" Yang asked.

"Ozpin sent me the message. I'm only telling you what he told me. He said to bring weapons and enough food for four days." Ruby said.

"Well, looks like you two will have to continue your little argument later. We have work to do." Blake said, standing up to get her gear together.

* * *

**An hour later...**

"Professor Oobleck?" Weiss said questioningly when team RWBY arrived at the landing pad.

"DOCTOR!" The Dr. shouted back.

"What are you doing here. I thought that this mission would only be for us." Yang said.

"I'm afraid I have no answers for you today. I am just as confused as you are at the moment."

Just then a Bullhead landed on the landing pad. A Bullhead that everybody except the Dr. recognized.

"Soap?" said the girls in unison. However instead of an answer, they only got the opening of the loading bay doors.

RWBY looked at each other questioningly.

"Well let's not keep Instructor Soap waiting." Said Oobleck as he made his way up the ramp.

* * *

Once inside the Bullhead, the doors closed and a voice came on over the speakers.

"Hello girls. Hello Dr." Said a very familiar voice.

"Soap. Where are you?" Yang asked.

"This is a recording. Responses are limited." A monotone voice responded, obviously not Soap's.

Soap's voice came back after a second of silence. "Please sit down and get comfy. You are in for a long ride, hence the four days worth of food. I am sure that this only further confuses you. However I am afraid that I will be unable to answer any of them until you get within range of my communication equipment. Which reminds me, Dr. do you have the long-range communication equipment?"

"Yes I do." The Dr. responded.

"Very good. There are beds that will appear when it is night time. But as I said before, this is going to be a long ride. In two days time, I will be broadcasting on all frequencies. When you hear me over the radio is when you may start asking questions, however I must ask that you keep them until you arrive as we will be dealing with a very large number of grimm. Without any further delay, let us start your journey. I will be seeing you all in four days time." The recording stopped and the Bullheads' engines roared to life. Within seconds the aircraft was off the ground and on it's way. Before the passed out of radio contact of Beacon, Ozpin sent them a message.

"Team RWBY and Dr. Oobleck. Good luck to you. If Soap is right, then you will be the first to know the truth of what happened during the Grimm War. Ozpin out."

* * *

**(moving back to first person)**

**Three days later...**

Grimm nearly overwhelmed us yesterday, as such I was unable to broadcast to my Bullhead. However today the grimm were much tamer, actually just less in number, giving me the needed time to broadcast.

"Team RWBY. Dr. Oobleck. Come, in this is Soap." I didn't have to wait for a reply.

"Soap!" I heard four voices respond simultaneously. I rolled my eyes knowing that they were crowding around the radio.

"Hey guys, back up from the radio would ya." I activated a camera on both ends and saw them with their jaws open in shock. "Why is this a surprise? Didn't I tell you that I was a technology buff?"

I got a harmonious "no" in response.

"Oh. Well I am. So anything else that happens should not be a surprise. But that's a topic for another day. The place that you are about to reach was once only spoken about in legends. A place that you, Doctor, should know about. Delta Base."

The Dr. got visibly excited when he heard this. "How do you know this?"

"Well, there is a giant 'Welcome to Delta Base' sign in the hanger. I am pretty sure Doc." Alarms went off on my end. I looked to see what was wrong. Grimm, grimm and, oh hey look, more grimm. That's what was wrong. "Guys I got to go. Grimm are attacking again. RWBY when you get here, that will be your job. See you guys soon."

* * *

**The next day...**

Around 8:30 I got an alert that my Bullhead was about ten minutes out. Thankfully the grimm were currently tame, well...as tame as grimm could really get, so I should be able to show them what we found in relative peace.

I made my way to the hanger to greet my guests.

As usual, I got there just in time. I entered the room just as it landed. When the doors opened I was swarmed by Ruby and Yang with questions. Weiss and Blake, thankfully, stayed behind. When Ruby finally stopped asking me questions and Yang stopped crushing me with her bear hug, I was able to actually say hi.

"Hey girls. Yang, Ruby. Please do me a favor. Never do that to me again." I said. Ruby looked away in shame while Yang just nodded her head. "Thanks. Hello Doctor."

"Hello Instructor Soap." The doctor responded.

"Please, let's drop the formalities while we are here."

"Only if you say so Soap."

"Good. If you all follow me, I will show you to the command center." I said, turning around and starting towards the door.

A unanimous "Okay" was heard as I passed through the door.

* * *

Upon entering the command center, I could hear the girls behind me gasping in wonder at the century old equipment. I radioed for Sarah to head up from her position to come greet our guests and give RWBY their assignment.

With RWBY now gone and Sarah back from showing the girls their spots; myself, Sarah, and the Doctor could finally get down to business.

"Oobleck, do you know where we are?" I asked.

"We are currently in the command center of the infamous Delta Base. The very base, according to legends, where the Grimm War ended from an act of self-sacrifice by the general that led the resistance against the Grimm." He replied.

Sarah spoke, "That's correct. And if you can validate what we have found, then everything that we know as fact for the war will be false. I am going to need you to hold out your hand and close your eyes until I say."

Oobleck looked at Sarah suspiciously, "Now just why would I do that miss Hearts?"

"Because I am going to teleport us to the location of the artifact. The teleportation process, unless you have a similar ability, will look something like staring directly at the sun." She explained.

Oobleck looked satisfied with her explanation, however he still had a question. "Can we not just take the stairs or possibly the elevator?"

This time I spoke up. "I may be a technology genius, however that doesn't mean that I have all the time in the world. With that said, I have yet to fix the elevators. As for the stairs, well...none exist. The reason for this is that it was a precaution that the builders of the base took against the grimm. If the grimm were to somehow get into the lower levels of the base, the last thing they wanted was for them to start climbing the stairwells and be able to attack from the inside."

Oobleck sighed and took Sarah's still outstretched hand. "Very well."

* * *

"You can open your eyes now." Sarah said.

The doctor complied. With his eyes now open, he looked around. "This is what you found? A massive hole in the side of the base?"

I stated walking toward the plaque, "Not exactly. We found this." I motioned for him to look at what my hand was resting on.

He approached the plaque and began examining it. "Is this all you found?" He asked, looking up from the plaque.

Sarah and I both shook our heads no. I got out my scroll and went to the recordings, "We also found this." I pushed play on the message we found, I transfered it to my scroll as soon as I was able to.

After the recording was through, Oobleck went to the nearest undamaged console and powered it on. "Looks like we have some work to do."

* * *

****A/N: Dr. Oobleck sure was excited about the data that he got from those consoles.****

****Sarah: I've never seen a man talk that fast before in my life and I don't think I want to ever again.****

****Soap: I have to agree with you on that. Ready to head back to the church?****

****Sarah: After the amount of excitement we have just seen? Yeah.****

****Soap: Good. Let's head back.****


	17. Ch 16: drive to do

****A/N: Time for more exposition! Some major exposition!  
****

* * *

Chapter 16: drive to do

* * *

**A few days later...**

After we gathered all the data we could find on the terminals, we loaded up and headed back the Beacon. On any other flight,myself or Sarah would usually be flying the Bullhead. However, this was not any other flight, as such, Sam was flying. She needed the practice anyways. I headed toward one of the back compartments in the aircraft, one that was specifically designed to analyze data, with Sarah and Dr. Oobleck.

"So Dr." I begin, "what have we found that will disprove everything that we know about the Grimm War?"

"Common belief is that it was a hundred year long war. The documents that we found disprove that." He responded.

"How so?"

"Documents dating as far back as 900 years stating a declaration of unity among what was then six kingdoms, to fight."

"Quite honestly, I don't think that we really need anything else to convince people that they were wrong. Did you find anything else?"

"Unfortunately, no. However, I did manage to recover several photographs, all of which contain the officers commanding the resistance."

"Resistance?" Sarah asked.

"Yes. Resistance. It seems that a little while after the war started, two of the kingdoms fell, sparking a formal resistance. Here are three of those photographs." He handed them to me.

After I looked over them for a minute. I realized that in each of them, there was only one person that reappeared in each one. From the looks of it, this person had a General ranking. "There is only one person that reappears in each of them."

"That's correct. Soap, look at the dates at which they were taken."

I did as I was told. "Each photograph was taken exactly 300 years apart from the other."

"Soap, do you know who that person that appeared in all three of those photos was?"

I shook my head no.

"If I have done my research correctly, then that man is none other than General Gunnel himself."

I felt chills go down my spine. "What the hell? How is that possible?"

"That, I'm afraid, is a question for another day. We have arrived at my destination. Do yourself a favor Soap, and get some rest. And take RWBY with you, they deserve it." He got off the Bullhead and started walking through the front gates of Beacon.

* * *

**A few hours later...**

"Team RWBY and Team BNTY, your next assignment is to get some rest." Quiet cheers of victory could be seen from the group in front of me. "If anybody needs me, I'll be in the sanctuary."

Without another word, everybody spilt and went their own way.

Now in the sanctuary, I went to grab my guitar. However as soon as I touched it, my necklace flashed, effectively blinding me.

* * *

As the effects of the flash slowly began to wear off. I heard an unfamiliar voice call my name.

"Soap."

I didn't respond. I was still trying to figure out what had happened.

"SOAP!"

_'Why the hell did my necklace randomly flash. I've alre-'_

"CHRIS!"

My blood boiled when I heard that name. There was nobody on all of Remnant that knew my real name, not anymore. Not even Sarah knew my real name. I turned to face the voice.

"Don't you **DARE** call me that!" I said, my voice laced thick with venom and hostility.

"And why not? Your mother gave you that name, you should be proud of it." The voice said.

I lowered my head in shame, "Under that name, terrible things happened. Things that I regret. Because of those happenings, that name is the most wanted on the planet." I replied, hoping my response would satisfy the ghostly figure.

"Fine. I'll leave the subject alone." The figure paused, seemingly thinking of what to say next. "I'm sure that you're wondering what happened."

I nodded.

"And who I am."

I nodded again.

"Very well. Simply put, I am your ancestor. The very same who's memories are stored on your necklace."

I could feel my eyes grow wide at his statement. I could feel my curiosity grabbing hold. "What's your name?"

"Well...while I was alive, I had many names. Among them: Old Man; Teammate; Friend; The Angel of Death; The Guardian of Light; and Hell's Spite. However, there's one that I'm sure you know all too well."

"What's that?" I asked, waiting for the figure to speak again.

"Gunnel. General Gunnel."

My jaw dropped in shock. "How is this possible? You're dead!"

"Death permitted me a few visits to world of the living after I died, however I was only able to choose a few people to whom I could be seen. You and Sarah Kirtsov are among those people. The names of those that I did not mention, you shall know soon enough." The General replied.

"Okay. But why me?"

"A couple of reasons. To unlock memories in your necklace that would inaccessible. To unlock my semblance, which like you said is stored on the necklace, for you to use. And finally, to visit the very person that was named after me."

I realized what he meant by same name. First _and_ last.

The General's ghostly form began to fade. "I am afraid that I am just about out of time. Before I go, I must say this. Gather those who you trust most and bring them here. Once you do, explore the memories that of which are store on your necklace. That is all I am able to say. I must go. Until next time Soap." The General faded away completely leaving me behind in a very confused state.

_I have to get Sarah and Blake._ I thought to myself as I left the sanctuary.

* * *

"You wanted to see me?" Blake asked.

"Yes. While we were at Delta Base, a memory unlocked itself. One that I have not seen yet. One that may hold answers to questions regarding the Grimm War." I said, about to activate the memory.

However, before I have a chance to activate it, Blake asked em a question: "Why am I included in this? If anything, I would have thought that you would include Sam, Drake, and Bucky, not me." I looked at Sarah who just nodded, knowing exactly what I was going to say.

"Blake, three reasons. One; you already know more about this than the rest of my team. Two; you are incredibly smart and observant. Not to mention that having another pair of eyes, sharp fanus eyes at that, might reveal something that Sarah and I alone might miss. Three; Sarah and I trust you. We want you to know that." I said in response. Blake looked satisfied with my response. "Shall we begin?"

* * *

I activated the memory, filling the room with an unearthly glow. Eventually, the sanctuary turned in to one of the rooms in Delta Base. A room that I knew well. As the room continued to change, a figure started to assemble itself in front of them. A figure that I now knew as the infamous General Gunnel.

The figure spoke, "Hello Soap, Sarah, and Blake."

"I understand how you already know my name, General Gunnel. But how do you know Sarah and Blake's name? After all, you are only a memory." I said.

"Soap, or should I say Chris?" My blood boiled again at the sound of my name. Sarah and Blake looked at me quizzically. I saw this and gave them a look that said that I would explain later. "Before I died, I was the wisest person to ever walk the planet. The curse placed on me made sure of that. During the many centuries that this curse kept me alive, I gained many abilities. One of them, the ability to see into the future. This is how I know your names. It was also the reason why I gave up my life."

I thought about this for a moment and was about to speak up when Blake spoke, "Why did you make a necklace that acted as a vessel for your memories?" She asked.

The General's figure spoke immediately, "To give you a direction."

Both Sarah and Blake had the exact same reaction to this, "A direction?"

"Yes, a direction as to where to start looking for the pieces of my life that I've left behind. They are the key to ending this war once and for all."

"War? We are in a time of peace. There is no war." I said.

"Do you remember the words that Summer spoke to you moments before she died?" The General asked me.

"I do. She said, 'Please protect Ruby from...the war with the darkness..." My eyes went wide with realization.

"She was referring to the war that I gave my life for. The one that never really ended. After all my searching, I almost found it." The General said in a hushed voice.

"Found what?" Sarah asked, now slightly alarmed.

"A solution. However, I ran out of time and all my sacrifice managed to do was wound it and piss it off."

"Piss what off?" Blake asked, now concerned.

"I am sorry, but I am forbidden to tell you." The General looked down in shame. Just then, explosions went off in the distance; effectively shaking the base. The General now looked very alarmed, "I'm running out of time!" The General yelled as alarms started going off in the base.

"Where do we start looking?!" I yelled over the sound of the alarms.

"A console. Where I died. Your journey to end this starts there!" He yelled back. Another explosion rocked the base. The General's eyes went wide when he heard the explosion. "It's here!" He turned back to face them, "Chris, Sarah, Blake. The future of Remnant is in your hands! Pick up the pieces and good luck to you all!" The General turns around and walks towards a locker located next to a door. He opened it and took a look at what was inside. His weapons and armor. From where Sarah, Blake and I were standing, his weapon looked like a standard military issue M16. After I walked closer to get a better look, I saw that it was anything but standard issue. The assault riffle had an extended barrel and, what looked like anyways, a solid steel shoulder stock. Presumably allowing the riffle to be used as a makeshift war hammer. His armor also looked very custom. **(His chestplate, leg, upper arm, and shoulder armor look like the armor from Halo 3: ODST. It essentially is, just not as durrable. His helmet is the helmet from Halo 3: ODST.) ** Aside from the main armor sporting a black, white, and red theme, his greaves looked a little bit like Yang's shotgun gauntlets but instead of shotguns, Gunnel's had detachable swords.

As the General began to put on his armor, I heard him begin to say something.

"Father in heaven. Thank You for the life that You have so freely given me. Thank You for allowing me to carry out Your will. Because of Your actions through me, many have been saved. I know that even in death, those that have died and gone before me are still safe in Your hands and are waiting for me to join them in the endless celebration that is heaven. I have made many mistakes and have committed many sins in my life, and yet You chose to forgive me and look past that. In the end, You love me simply because I am Your child. A beautiful mess we are, human and fanus." By this time, he finished putting on his armor and entered the door, actually an elevator, and went to the surface. Enough time passed before the doors closed to allow Sarah, myself, and Blake to join him in the elevator. Once inside, he continued speaking, "To my brothers and sisters that have gone before me, and to the many that will surely follow, I'm coming home. Lord, You are sovereign. You rule. You reign. Amen." As he spoke those words, the elevator doors opened. Before he stepped through, he looked at me and said, "What are you waiting for Chris? It's time for you to end this."

We all watched as he walked through the doors. Now through the doors, the memory began to fade. He donned his helmet and ran towards something that could only be described as a Demon.

The memory finally gone from our eyes, we looked at each other, each thinking the same thought, however Blake was the one that voiced it.

"What. The hell. Was that?"

* * *

****A/N: Well, here you go. The start of the actual plot has begun. Everything till now has just set the stage for this. I know General Gunnel might seem somewhat OP and, to be honest, he really is. However there is a reason for this.****

****Also, now you know Soap's name. Chris Gunnel, named after the very General that ended the original Grimm War. The General's lover and team will be revealed later.****

****I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, please don't forget to Follow, Favorite, and Review as doing these things only motivate me to work faster and more often.****

****Until next time, I'm SoapiestAuto780 and I'm out.****


	18. Ch 17: the things that

****A/N: Wow, I can't believe that I managed to type most of this while fireworks were constantly going off.****

****Enjoy.****

* * *

Chapter 17: the things that

* * *

Sarah turned to look at me, "The name that you tried so hard to hide from me was Chris?"

I put my head down in shame, "Yes."

"Why?"

"My full name is Chris Gunnel." I watched as Blake's eyes grew wide, I had a feeling that she knew who I was. "A direct descendant of General Chris Gunnel. The very same man who gave up his life to try and put an end to the Grimm War.

"Why is that a bad thing?" Sarah asked.

I pulled out my scroll and went to a site that showed a list of names. "This should explain why." I handed the scroll to her.

Sarah's brow furrowed as she tried to figure out what I was saying. "What am I looking at here?"

"Look at the name at the very top of that list and read it out loud." I said looking away.

"Chris Gunnel. The number one most wanted person...on the planet." She dropped my scroll. I watched as it fell to the floor and shattered.

I sighed before turned to her and continued, "I am the number one most wanted person in all of Remnant. That is what I've been hiding from you since the beginning."

"Why?" I heard her say quietly.

"Why what?" I asked in response.

"Why are you the most wanted person in all of Remnant?"

"Because," I said, turning away, "I singlehandedly murdered an entire city, except for five." I heard Blake gasp. I faced her, "You know my story Blake?"

"Yes, but only the parts that my parents were willing to tell me." She said.

"Then allow me to fill in some blanks. A week before I turned seven, A week before I became a bounty hunter, I heard a voice tell me that I could get revenge on the people that destroyed my village. Not being any wiser, I did as it said. I followed the voice to a cave. Inside the cave was a crystal, a dust crystal. One that was made of pure darkness. Following the voice inside my head, I stabbed myself with the crystal into both of my hands." I activated my semblance and burned off my gloves. Two nasty scars could be seen. My left hand looked fairly normal, well as normal as a hand could look after being stabbed with a crystal, while my right hand was completely deformed. In the center of my right hand was a hole straight through my hand. "I don't remember much after that, but from the pieces that I do, I figure that one by one I tore through the city, the voice in my head saying that all were guilty. I got halfway up the tower where the thug that ordered the attack on my village was located when I was stopped and backed into a corner by a figure in a white cloak."

"Summer Rose." I heard Blake say quietly.

I nodded my head in agreement. "Though I don't remember what she said to talk sense into me, I remember what happened after she managed to do so."

* * *

**Eleven years ago...**

"Are you alright?" Summer said.

I nodded my head. "What's your name?"

"Chris Gu..." I started to say.

"That's not what I meant." I was very confused by this. What else could she mean? "Think of this as a chance to start over fresh, a clean slate if you will. What name do you want people to know your face by?" She thought for a moment, "Since we're talking about a clean start, how about...Soap?"

I shrugged, "Why not?"

"Then let's try that again. What's your name?"

"My name's Soap." I stated simply, holding out my hand.

"Nice to meet you Soap. My name is Summer, Summer Rose." We shook hands. "Now, how about something to eat Soap? I'm sure you're starving."

* * *

**Present day...**

"Summer's the reason why I ever thought to give people second chances, and I thought to do that through way of bounty hunter." I stopped to let them take it all in. "Summer's also the reason why my name is what it is."

Sarah scooted closer to me in the pew. She took my hands, feeling my mangled skin for the first time, and looked me in the eyes, "Did you truly think that I would think of you or love you any less than I do now, just because of some stupid wanted level?"

I looked her in the eyes, "To be honest, I did."

She leaned forward and kissed me passionately. "News flash, I don't. I will always love you the same. No matter what."

I smiled at her and kissed her again. I turned my head to where Blake was sitting, "What about you Blake? What will you do now that you know my secret?"

Blake sat there, and judging by her face, she seemed to be contemplating her options.

"I will not judge you if you wish to turn me in, Blake." I said. "If anything, I deserve it."

"I won't turn you in."

"Thank you Blake." Sarah said.

I leaned forward, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"I mean...You are taking this extremely well. Why?"

Blake starred at the cross that hung above the stage, "You aren't the only one with a past to run from."

"I know."

I was about to put another pair of gloves on, when I felt a pair of hands stop me. I looked to see where they came from, "Please Soap, keep the gloves off. For me?"

I smiled, "Fine." I took a deep breath. "Let's move on, that beast that we saw at the end of the General's memory, what wa-" Before I had a chance to say another word, my necklace flashed, sending us into another memory like state.

* * *

Having experienced this same occurrence earlier today, I was able to recover from the blinding effects of the flash rather quickly. I looked around and saw that I was not alone.

"Sarah, Blake, are you guys alright?" I asked.

Sarah was the first to recover, "I'm alright."

"As am I." Blake added seconds later.

Sarah, now able to see, looked at me with a puzzled expression, "What just happened?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the voice of a ghost, "I brought all three of you in here to speak with me."

Sarah and Blake turned to face the ghostly apparition. "Who are you?" They asked in perfect unison.

I didn't say a word as the ghost introduced itself. "My name is General Chris Gunnel."

"General Gunnel?" Blake asked, surprised. "Aren't you the guy-" She started.

"Yes, the very same who ended the Grimm War, the very same who's memory you just saw, and the very person who Chris is a of."

I groaned when I heard my name, but no one noticed. Blake and Sarah's eyes widened in amazement, "I thought you were dead." Sarah said.

"I am, however, since I lived for as long as I did, Death permitted me to visit those that I choose after death."

I didn't want to hear his speech again, so I stopped him there. "You just talked to me earlier today, what else do you want?"

"I wanted to meet the two people that my great grandson trusts the most."

My brows furrowed, "You pulled us in here, just to say hi?" I half asked, half screamed.

"Not just that. Do you really think that I would waste one of my visits to say hi? No. I came to further clarify something for you."

"Alright then, out with it." I said, still slightly annoyed.

"In the memory that you just watched, I said that you needed direction; I also gave you a place to start looking. When you access that console, you need to be looking for something. Something that I know that you, Chris..."

I interrupted him, "I know that they know my name, but I would still prefer to be called 'Soap'. It will be easier to distinguish between me and you. That goes for you two as well." I said looking at Sarah and Blake.

"Very well then. _Soap_, you need to be looking for something that you will know very well. I must go now." The General said, turning around to leave.

"Hey General?" I started to say.

He stopped, "Hmm?"

"What was your curse?" I asked.

"My curse?" I nodded my head, "I was cursed to live until I found a solution to ending the war. Because of this and the contagious properties of my curse; we, both myself and the person that I loved the most, could live forever. Because of this fact, Amanda Silverlight, the person that I loved the most, wanted me to give up searching for a solution and run away from the war so we could start a new life. I didn't want that though. I wanted to end the war once and for all. However, once I realized that I got too close to a solution and had run out of time; I infused myself and my armor with as much explosive, fire, and electric Dust as I could get my hands on and did the only thing that I thought might slow the beast down. I charged it; detonating once I reached the very thing that cursed me in the first place."

I realized what the General was talking about, "That beast. That's what cursed you."

He nodded, "I was cursed by the beast that you saw. The Demon, is what it likes to be referred to as."

As soon as he said this, I grew uncomfortable, "Is there any significance in the fact that of all the nicknames that I have gained over the years, my favorite just so happens to be 'Demon'?"

"No. That is nothing more than a coincidence."

I let out a relieved sigh. "Good. Anything else we should know before we rush back over to Delta Base to find your console?" I asked.

"A couple actually. One, my aura and my semblance are stored on that necklace." Chris said.

"Yeah, what's that supposed to mean?" I asked, not understanding what he was getting at.

"It means that you can use them anytime you feel like it, though if I were you I would only do so when you need to teleport large distances or in emergency situations. My semblance was light manipulation, or as I called it, Heaven's Light."

"That explains why every time I re-live one of your memories, that strange glow occurs." I said.

"Exactly. Another thing is that you should bring your friend Dr. Oobleck with you. He will be able to find the video file that you're looking for."

"And we won't?" Sarah asked.

"No. You will not. One last thing. Do you remember when you stabbed your hands with that Dust crystal made of pure darkness?"

I was a little concerned by how he was leading his statement. "Yeah?"

"Do you also remember the voice that you followed to find the cave that it was in?"

"Yeah?" I said, now alarmed by his words.

"Both of those things were created by The Demon and was meant to possess you to make sure that it would not be fought against."

I was now speechless. I fell for that things' trap.

The General spoke again, "However, it didn't work."

I was confused. "It didn't work?"

"That's right. There are two factors that led to this, but I am only certain about one of them. Summer got to you in time after I contacted her is the one I am sure about. The second factor was your faith in what your parents believed. You have said that you no longer believe in what they did, however, I'm not so sure. But it's not up to me to decide; that's your job to figure out." Just as he said that, something that sounded like my alarm clock went off. "It seems that Death is calling me back. It was nice meeting you Sarah and Blake. Until next time." He said as he dissipated.

* * *

As soon as the General disappeared, the memory environment vanished. Revealing us to still be in the sanctuary.

We all just stood there, looking at each other, waiting for something to happen.

Blake spoke first, "So Soap, what happens now?" Sarah, wondering the exact same thing, faced me and waited for a response.

"We rest here tonight, and go investigate tomorrow. I need to make myself a new scroll anyways, so I won't be able to contact Beacon until then. Blake, you and you're team are going to be staying here along with Bucky, Drake, and Sam. You guys enjoy your time off." I said.

I took Sarah's hand and turned around, heading towards the sanctuary exit. "Oh, one more thing Blake." I said not bothering to stop walking or turn around. "Try to find a way to tell your team about your past and your faunas **(this is the official spelling from Rooster Teeth)** heritage while we're gone. Goodnight."

* * *

****A/N: And there you have it, set up for more plot. Until next time, I'm SoapiestAuto780 and I'm out. See you guys, and have a happy new year.****


	19. Ch 18: cannot be done

****A/N: I'm on a roll!****

* * *

Chapter 18: cannot be done

* * *

**The next day...**

After I built myself a new scroll, I sent a message to Ozpin stating that we managed to find something, separate from what we found with Dr. Oobleck, and that we would be needing the Dr. to help us confirm our findings.

With in minutes of sending the message, I got a reply.

_"I see no harm in this. Just be sure to return the Doctor in one piece. I will let him know you are coming, and since I know that you are probably going to teleport straight into his room rather than walking and using the door like a normal person, please give him about thirty minutes from the time that you receive this so that you do not scare him."  
__~Ozpin_

Hehe. Good times. I had scared Ozpin twice during the few months that he had employed me. Both times I appeared in his office unannounced.

I checked the time. 8:00. I had a while to wait.

While I waited, I checked over my weapons and gear. Everything accounted for, I checked the time again. 8:28. _Close enough, _I thought.

_'Hey Sarah, you ready to go?' _I asked her telepathically.

_'Yep, come get me?' _She said in reply.

I rolled my eyes as I thought, _I swear, my girlfriend is sometimes the laziest person on the planet._

_'Sure.'_

I teleported to our room and took her hand, "Let's go see what the General wanted us to see so badly." I said as I teleported to Beacon.

* * *

Now in the Doctor's room, I walked to the still occupied desk in the center of the room, "Doctor?" I asked him.

He looked up from his desk and saw me standing in front of him, "Oh. Hello Soap." He said, looking back down at a paper on his desk.

I rolled my eyes, "Are you ready to go?"

He looked up from the paper he was reading, "Just a moment, let me grab something and then I will be ready." He got up and went to a coat hanger. Reaching it, he grabbed what looked to be a safari hat.

I facepalmed. _Of course he has a safari hat. __To each their own I suppose, _I thought. I heard Sarah snickering behind me. I turned and shot her a look at which she stopped laughing.

After he returned, he stated that he was ready.

I called to Sarah, "Sarah, let's go." She came over to us and grabbed my shoulder. Seeing this, Oobleck looked confused.

"We aren't taking your Bullhead?" He asked.

I shook my head, "No. In the time since we dropped you off the other day, well...let's just say that I found out that I have a LOT more aura than I thought I did. I should be able to teleport us very close to, if not inside of, Delta Base. If I don't make it, Sarah will be able to teleport us the rest of the way."

The professor seemed to accept this, "Alright. Only if you insist Soap." He grabbed hold of my shoulder and I teleported straight to the command center of Delta Base.

* * *

In the base, we took a moment to rest. Since nothing else was going to make sense when he found that video file, I told him everything that he might need to know to find the file.

After I was done explaining, he looked at me, "So let me get this straight. You are telling me that you are a descendant of General Gunnel?"

"Yes."

"And you, along with Sarah and Blake, have directly spoken with his ghost?"

"Yes."

"You also say that Gunnel was cursed by 'The Demon' to live until he found a way to kill it?"

"Yes." At this point I turned on autopilot with my responses.

"Along the way, he fell in love with an Amanda Silverlight who wanted him to stop so that they could live together forever..."

"Yes."

"...but he refused and continued searching anyways. In the end, his searching resulted him finding something that he shouldn't have and in turn, he got too close to a solution, thus he started running out of time."

"Yes."

"So as a less permanent solution, he infused himself, and his armor, with as much explosive, fire, and electric Dust as he could get his hands on, and charged The Demon..."

"Yes." I yawned.

"...and upon getting close enough, he detonated himself. Effectively, or ineffectively, we don't know, injuring and pissing off the beast, causing it to stay dormant for at least the last 100 years, which according to recorded history, is the longest period of peace Remnant has ever known?"

"Yes." _I think he might be done soon, I'd better pay attention now, _I thought to myself.

"..."

"Doctor?" I asked, slightly concerned I might have broken him.

"That's absolutely incredible!" He exclaimed excitedly. "You also said that Gunnel told you to start looking through the consoles in the room in which he died?" He turned, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go find this file!" He started towards the elevator shafts, leaving the room.

I looked at Sarah, "He knows that the elevators are still broken, right?" I asked her.

She just shrugged her shoulders. Just then, the Doctor re-entered the room.

"I forgot that the elevators are broken. Do you mind taking me back to that room?"

I rolled my eyes at the professor's antics, "Sure thing. While you're looking for that file, I'm going to get the elevators fixed. I've waited long enough to do so."

I grabbed his shoulder and looked at Sarah, "I'll be right back."

* * *

**A few hours later...**

I got a message from the professor telling me to meet him where I left him hours earlier.

"What is it?" I asked entering the room. "What did you find?"

"To be honest Soap, I don't know. Nor do I want to know, the answer is yours to know and those who you choose to share it with. I'd best be leaving." the Doctor said as he swiftly left the the room, leaving me alone.

I turned around to look at the screen, "Well, time to find out why the General sent us here." I pushed play on the screen and watched.

**VIDEO START**

A woman could be seen making her way through some rubble. She was wearing Army Fatigues that were anything but standard. Her outfit was had a standard camo design but was comprised of Silver, White, and Black. On her shoulders, she bore the symbol that signified the rank of Colonel, and on the back of her shirt was, what I assumed to be, her sigil. A lock that was broken in half. She wore her silver hair neck length and had bright blue irises. From the angle that I could see her, she was human and about 4'11". At first glance, I didn't see any weapons on her. But upon closer inspection, I saw 10 dark blue throwing knives strapped to the white belt on her waist.

"Why?" She asked a disfigured person lying on the ground, pieces of his lower body thrown all across the room.

"Why what, Colonel?" The man asked.

"You gave up your life to save us; why General?" The woman asked.

The man on the ground sighed, "Amanda, please address me by my name."

The woman, Amanda, looked confused and angry at the same time, "Dammit Chris! You're dying! Why would you possibly care about what I call you?"

The man on the ground said nothing.

Amanda sighed, "We could have spent the rest of time together; we could have lived forever. Now, neither of us can."

Chris let out a sigh. "Even if only for a little while, this war had to end one way or another; I chose another."

The woman knelt beside Chris, grabbed what was left of his right hand and looked him in the eyes, "I do not resent you for what you did. If anything, I am jealous that you acted instead of I. But you still have not explained your reasoning."

Chris let out a soft chuckle, "For 10 generations I have lived; during that time, I have seen victory and I have seen defeat. I have experienced happiness, joy, sorrow, anger, sadness, hate,..." he turned his head in the direction of Amanda, "...and love. I have seen my men slaughtered before me. Thousands of men and women that served under me, lost their life fighting to try and end this war. Each and every one of those soldiers thought of me as a father; just as I considered them my children. I watched as they ran to their deaths'; but ultimately their deaths were to of no avail and amounted to nothing. I was tired of watching needless death."

"So you did something about it."

"Exactly." Chris said with a smile.

"For what?"

He laughed again, this time bringing up some blood in doing so, "I have seen both sides of the grave, multiple times. Life and Death. I have gained lifetimes of wisdom during these cycles, knowledge that I refuse to let be wasted." Chris coughed up some more blood, it wouldn't be long before he was gone and he knew it. Amanda gripped his hand tighter. "This knowledge must be passed on through the generations." He reached up to his neck and grabbed his necklace, yanking it off. His hand was shaking now. He grabbed his loved one's hand and placed the necklace inside. "This war is far from over. Give this to our children, and tell them to pass it on to their children. Let it serve as reminder that this war is far from over. When the time comes and it enters the hands of he who is able; he will end this war, once and for all. Promise me," He coughed again, "Promise me that you will do that."

"I promise." She said as she planted a kiss on his lips.

With all that was needed to be said, said; His strength began to fail him. He went limp and let go of Amanda's hand. Before all of his life left him, he uttered one last phrase, "I love you Amanda."

"I love you too Chris, and I always will." The woman broke down into tears as the video ended.

**VIDEO END**

I was left speechless. This was the General's last moments. I was amazed that such a video existed. I thought about what he had said when a thought hit me. I re-wound the video to just before the General finally bled out. I reached the spot and paused the video. Searching the screen, I found what I was looking for. Seeing it, a chill went down my spine.

Around the woman's neck was a necklace. Engraved in the center of the necklace were two hearts intertwined. The exact same sigil that Sarah's necklace bore.

"What the hell?" I inspected the frozen video again.

In the background, I saw two people walking toward the woman, one a girl, the other a guy, hand in hand. The girl couldn't be any older than 14 or 15. The guy looked to be about 18 or 19.

The girl looked to be about 5'3". She was wearing military grade combat pants and bright purple and red colored combat boots. Her top was a sky-blue and red digital camo, sports shirt. On top of that, she wore a light-blue, sleeveless, jacket which also had a hood. On her right bicep, a violet bandanna was tied. It's purpose known to me, I had a pair of gloves that did the exact same thing. It was hiding her scars. On her left wrist, a tribal, butterfly, flower tattoo could seen. On each of the four pedals of the flower, initials could be seen. EC, RC, WC, and AC. On her bandanna, a black scope sigil could be seen. From the looks of it, she looked human. On her back was what appeared to be a bladed compound bow. I switched camera angles. From this angle, I could also see that the bow was missing it's string. _I wonder if she used her aura as a string, _I thought. I switched back to the other camera angle, I could also see that strapped to her waist was a highly custom Colt 1911 .42 pistol with runic letterings covering any place they could be put.

To her right was guy with a medium build that couldn't be any taller than 5'1". He was wearing standard military combat outfit in various shades of gray, dark blue, and white. His hair was brown, cut military style. Above his right eye was a scar that extended down to his jawline. I could see two tomahawks sticking up over his shoulder and on either side of his waist, was an eight cylinder bladed revolver holstered to his waist. On his chest, around where his heart would be, was what I assumed to be his sigil, a wolf.

"Who were these people?" I thought aloud.

I was in such deep thought, that I didn't notice myself being pulled into another ghostly meeting room like environment with Chris.

* * *

I remained deep in thought until I heard my name being called.

"Soap."

"How long ago did you pull me in?" I asked.

"30 seconds."

"Ok. Good."

Two chairs appeared beside us. Chris put out a hand, motioning me to take a seat. "Please, sit down."

I obeyed.

"Before you ask, the thing that you were looking for was Sarah's sigil on Amanda's necklace. To be honest, this isn't anything more than just a coincidence. Sarah's necklace holds no powers like yours."

"Ok. That answers one of my questions."

"What are the others?"

"I have two other questions, but one at a time. Who were those people that I saw in the background, holding hands?"

"Ah, that would be Claire Coleman and Mithos Paine. They were the other two people on my team. After everything settled down, they got married and had some kids. Three to be exact. Two of them stayed with their parents, while the oldest ran off when she turned 18."

"What was her name?" I asked, curious.

"Her name escapes me, however, when she ran off, she fell in love with a faunas."

"Why is that important?"

"It's important because if you follow that line of descendants, you will eventually find someone very valuable to you. Sarah Kirtsov."

My eyes went wide.

"Her parents raised her till she was four years old. Then they unlocked her aura and gave her weapons as a gift before they gave her to that orphanage. They did so to protect her from the white fang."

"That miserably failed." I said, disheartened.

"Not at all, she learned how to fight while she was there and if those events never happened, she never would have found you. And before you ask; yes, her parents are still alive."

"What are their names?" I asked, excited.

"Kelly and Frank Kirtsov. I do warn you though, they will be hard to find."

I laughed. "You do realize that you are talking to the world's best bounty hunter, right?

"Of the two that stayed with Claire and Mithos, only one survived beyond childhood. He died of a beowolf attack. For the one that survived childhood, that line of descendants, if followed, will lead you straight to a man by the name of Regal Paine. I task you to find this man, since Regal is actually a reincarnation of Mithos."

"Let me just chalk up one more onto my list of challenges."

"When you find and befriend him, say to him, 'Follow to the end, I shall. Forever loyal, I am. Eternally grateful, I will always be.' Once you say this to him, he will help you till the end. He will also be able to give you answers that I am forbidden to give you. That's one question down, what's the other?"

"Why did you have me find that video file?"

"Because you watching it unlocked the majority of my life on that necklace. In order for you to find the solution that I was so close to getting, you will have to re-live my life and find it." Just then an alarm sounded, "It seems that my time is up. Good luck."

* * *

****A/N: Just saying, this was written 30 seconds after I wrote the last chapter. Also hey, Sarah's parents are still alive! Along with that Regal Paine guy. I will say this for the up coming chapters with Regal, he is going to be paired with one of the members of RWBY. I have an idea as to who I want him paired with, but I thought that maybe I should let you guys decide. Leave a review or send a PM entailing who of RWBY Regal should be paired with.****

****See you guys next time.****

****Soap out.****

****Also shout out to Lone Wolf of Shadows for agreeing to let me use his OC's!****


	20. Ch 19: without it It

**A/N: I started typing out an R P section here for the A/N here but after getting halfway through it, I decided to turn it into actual plot.**

* * *

Chapter 19: without it. It

* * *

_"My friends, it was for you that I gave my life. One day, someday, I will welcome you to your places among the stars where we will shine down among the generations to come, together. Until then, remember me, as I shall remember you, always."_

_~General Chris Gunnel_

* * *

**A month later...**

"You know, trying to steal my wallet isn't the best way to say hi to an old friend." I said to the wannabe pickpocket.

The thief I nabbed just looked at me with a confused expression. "What the hell are you talking about? I've never seen you before in my life."

"Oh really?" I challenged.

My captive just shook his head, "Nope."

I sighed, "Eight years ago..."

* * *

**Eariler that day...**

Not much had happened since I found that video log, I had exhausted nearly all of my options trying to find Regal, but nothing was working. I was frustrated to say the least.

"I need a break." I said to no one in particular as I rubbed my tired eyes.

I heard a voice speak behind me, "Then let's go do something."

"Oh hey Sarah." I said as she walked into the room.

"You've been working yourself into the ground lately trying to find this guy, Regal. Take a break and let's do something." Sarah said in a suggestive tone.

"Sarah Hearts, are you asking me out on a date?" I said back playfully.

She smiled, "Absolutely. How about you take me out to dinner, nothing fancy, and then we'll find a secluded spot or come back here and do our thing." She took a step forward and gave me a quick kiss on the lips.

"Why not? However, let's change into something a little more causal. I'll meet you in the garage." I said before teleporting to my room to change.

* * *

I never took long to change, just wasn't me. I stripped out of my rather over-used combat attire and slipped into something a little more comfortable.

I decided to leave my cloak behind. I put on a white t-shirt, a pair of black cargo shorts, and a red, sleeveless jacket which sported a hood. The back of my jacket bore my insignia; on my right shoulder was the same shoulder armor that I usually wore. Finishing off my outfit, I put on a custom pair of white combat shoes; they're custom because I made and personalized them myself.

Since Sarah and I would be going out in public, using my semblance, I formed a pair of smoke finger-less gloves over my hands. I could, if I really wanted to, just use my semblance to make the gloves appear on my hands all night without materializing them. To be honest though, I really didn't want to do that. So I activated the General's semblance, that was stored in my necklace, and made the gloves solid.

This was the first time I had ever used the General's semblance to materialized something, and his semblance combined with mine had an interesting effect. I had the gloves, that wasn't the problem. The gloves were covered in white, runic letters.

I studied the gloves. To be honest, they actually looked pretty cool, so I didn't question the design.

Now finished changing, I couldn't decide if I should bring my katanas or not. My deagle was coming with me, that wasn't debatable.

After debating it in my head for a while, I decided just to bring them with me.

I teleported to the garage and waited on Sarah.

I didn't have to wait long.

Sarah appeared in front of me not long after I, myself, appeared in the garage. She was wearing long, white pants with a black belt around her waist. She also had on a white and light red, long-sleeved t-shirt. On top of that she wore a light pink, short-sleeved jacket sporting a hood. Her jacket reminded me of her cloak, literally being just that, but as a jacket instead of a cloak. To finish off her outfit, she had on a pair of bright pink shoes.

_I wonder where she hid her weapons in that, _I thought after giving her a good look over.

"You made a bit of a change in your outfit." I paused, "I like it." I said.

"Thanks, same for you." She replied.

"Ready to go?" I said, starting towards one of my cars. I didn't hear a response, I just saw Sarah teleport herself into the passenger seat. "Well, I guess that answers my question." I said as I got in the car.

All I got in response was Sarah's childish laugh.

Rolling my eyes, I put the keys in the ignition and started toward downtown Vale.

* * *

**A few hours later...**

Dinner went smoothly and uneventful, which was a first for me. Ever since I became a rather successful bounty hunter, people that I am a threat to have tried to get rid of me. And every time, their carefully thought out plans failed. To be quite honest though, I found it rather comical to see their attempts fail.

After our successful dinner outing, we made our way to the park and went to go for a walk. We we're actually having quite a bit of fun, talking about whatever came to our minds. We were having fun until I noticed a shadow, not our own, following us.

Seeing this, I decided to bring this to Sarah's attention; but since I also didn't want to let our shadow know that we had spotted him, I spoke Sarah telepathically. _"Hey Sarah, don't react outwardly to this, but it looks like someone's following us."_

Sarah's face showed a hint of concern before returning to it's usual cheerfulness. _"What do you think they want?"_

_"My wallet." _I responded immediately.

_"Soap. I'm being serious."_

_"As am I. Though I haven't seen him in eight years, I know who this person is and I know that he honestly just wants my wallet. I also know that he doesn't recognize me, and because of that, I say that we should go along with it and catch him in the act. You alright with that?"_

Sarah just rolled her eyes and smiled in response. _'I'll take that as a yes.' _I thought to myself.

* * *

We continued to walk for a few minutes, all the while we pretended that we hadn't noticed our shadow. After another few minutes I got a message on my scroll. We stopped so that I could check it,_ "Sarah, make sure that our shadow doesn't take try to take my wallet until after I check my message." _I sub-consciously told her.

_"Sure thing."_ I heard in my head in response.

I pulled out my scroll to read the message, from Blake. _'Huh. I wonder what's up.' _I thought to myself.

_'Hey Soap. I found a pair of faunas, a brother and sister, digging through some trash cans behind a building. After talking to them, I found out that they are currently homeless and are literally about to starve to death. Do you mind if I offer them a place to stay at the church?'  
~Blake_

I thought about it. The church was, according to official site plans, a one story building and didn't have all that many rooms in it. Officially anyways. I made various expansions underground over the many years that I have lived there. I didn't need to think long to answer, but I still had a question to ask.

_'What are their names?'  
~Soap_

I waited less than a minute for her reply.

_'Shade and Umbra Tenebris. Apparently Shade knew Sarah at one point in her life. Said that he worked with her several times as a mercenary. I'll leave the rest of his story for later, too much to type. See you at the church.'  
~Blake_

_'Hmm. His story should be interesting to hear.'_ I thought to myself. I replied _'Sure.'_ and gave her directions to some empty rooms inside the church.

* * *

Putting away my scroll, I looked around for our shadow only to find that he was nowhere to be seen. Slightly confused, I was about to ask Sarah where he had gone when I heard her yell, "Soap! Behind you!"

Quickly I turned around to see that the shadow had an arm sticking out of it and was reaching for my back pocket. Reacting on instinct, my right hand went to one of the katana's on my back and pulled it. Not thinking in the slightest and acting completely on instinct, my other hand grabbed the guy's jacket and forced him into the nearest wall. Years of training still telling me what to do, I forced the flat side of my blade into his neck and in doing so, the shadow that had been following us turned into a 15-16 year old teenage guy. He was about five foot four and had a rather small build for his size, but it was obvious to me that he was strong. To anyone else, at first glance he appeared like any other human; To anyone else. To me, I saw a Wolf-faunas that cut off his faunas ears in one last, desperate attempt at being accepted among society. His face had a nasty scar running from the left side of his forehead, starting above his short, shaggy, black hair, and stopped above his right saguine eye. He was wearing a multicolored black t-shirt, a black zip-up hoodie, and a lightly worn pair of blue jeans. He had three scars that disappeared beneath the sleeve of his jacket and went from the back of his neck down to his upper right forearm. Tied around his neck was a black bandanna. To finish his outfit off, he had on a pair of black, fingerless gloves. _'Huh, convenient that I got different ones now.' _I thought to myself when my instincts calmed down enough where I could form a rational thought without thinking that someone was going to try to kill me. **(I had so much typed out here, then word crashed on me before I was able to save. This is what I was able to remember typing.)**

"You know, trying to steal my wallet isn't the best way to say hi to an old friend." I said to the wannabe pickpocket.

The thief I nabbed just looked at me with a confused expression. "What the hell are you talking about? I've never seen you before in my life."

"Oh really?" I challenged.

My captive just shook his head, "Nope."

I sighed, "Eight years ago, who was it that released you from that gang?" I put away my katanna.

"A dead man." He responded.

"Alright~, did that dead man, say, have a gun that looked like this?" I held out my gun for him to see.

His eyes widened, "No. No. NO. Nonononononono! I killed that guy, that blade went all the way through him. There's no way he could have survived."

When I heard this, I just started smiling. I activated my semblance and burned off my shirt, but left my jacket alone. I then took off my jacket, revealing my rather chiseled physique, and flung it over my shoulder.

Now shirtless, a rather ugly scar could be seen on the right side of my chest, right next to where my heart would be, "You're right. That blade did go right through me, and managed to miss every major organ in my body."

I laughed at the sight before me; the thief just stood still with his mouth agape, staring directly at me. "How about, we introduce ourselves _properly _this time? My name's Soap."

Sarah waved, "I'm Sarah Hearts."

"Dusk Rogue. Sorry I tried to steal your wallet." Dusk said.

"Yeah...About that. Care to explain?" I asked him.

"I needed money." He replied.

"I figured that part out. Care to explain why you needed money?" I asked again.

He sighed, "Ever since you released me from that gang, I have been living on the streets struggling to survive. I just wanted some food." Dusk said, putting his head down in shame.

I thought for a moment, "Let me ask you something," his head came back up. "If you had the chance to redeem yourself, would you take it?" I asked.

He looked at me with a confused expression. "I don't understand. What are you asking?" Dusk asked.

"I'm asking you to give up the way of life that you've called home to for so long and start down the path that will ultimately lead to the betterment of mankind's existence here on Remnant." I said.

He looked even more confused, "What?"

Sarah spoke up, "He's asking you to stop stealing things from people and to start working to improve our way of life."

"Oh."

"So, what do you say?" I asked. "You want to have a little adventure?"

"What would I be doing?" Dusk asked.

"We - Sarah and I, along with the rest of our team - are bounty hunters, just one step down from being actual Hunters. We are also Instructors at Beacon Academy. With that said, I'm sure that we would be able pull a few strings with the Headmaster and get you a place in Beacon. If not, then I could always use another person on my team to help out with bounties."

Dusk looked at me, "Seriously?"

"I don't see why not." I replied. "Hey, this offer also comes with, for a limited time, a bed to call your very own, a shower, annnndddd free food. **(To be honest, I have no idea where that came from. Don't judge me, I'm sleep deprived.) **So, what do you say? You in?" I asked one last time.

"I'm in." Dusk replied.

* * *

**Back at the church...**

"So let me get this straight, you met and then proceeded to fall in love with Soap, after literally running into him?" Dusk asked as we pulled into the garage.

Sarah laughed before responding, "Yep. Sucker got me to unlock his aura in the process too."

"Hey now. You said that you did that of your own accord." I said as we exited the garage and entered the lobby.

"Whatever." She said, rolling her eyes. "Hey Soap. You mentioned that Blake found two people while she was out?"

"Yeah." I replied.

"You also mentioned that one of them, apparently, knew me during my time as mercenary." She said.

"Yeah."

"Do you know the name of the guy?" She asked.

I rolled my eyes, "Sarah Hearts, are you thinking about leaving me?" I said, sarcasm laced in my voice.

"Pfft, please. You know I would never do that. However, I don't know very many people from my time as a mercenary that are still around. If this guy actually knew me back then, and is still alive, I would very much like to become reacquainted with him."

"I know." I said as I pulled up the message that I got from Blake earlier today. "Uhhhh, a Shade Tenebris." I said.

As soon as those words left my mouth, I knew something was wrong. I watched as Sarah clutched her head and her knees hit the floor. Just as I started to move to see what was wrong, the pain hit me like a ton of bricks. Pain. A pain that I hadn't felt in a long, long time. I mirrored Sarah as the pain steadily increased; as it did, I could see images - no, memories, Sarah's memories - flashing through my head at lightspeed. Before the pain became too much to bear, I sent Dusk instructions to find RWBY's room and what they needed to do. **(A/N)** After what seemed like an eternity, the pain suddenly stopped. I assumed that Sarah passed out from all the pain that she had experienced.

As I struggled to get up, I felt a pair of hands grab my shoulders. I looked up to see the concerned face of Blake. "Are you alright?" She asked as she helped me up.

"I'll be fine, I've been through worse." I said as Blake led me to one of the chairs that lined the sides of the room. "That's more than I can say for Sarah though."

"I see. Any idea what happened?" She asked, letting go of me as I finally got to a chair.

"Actually, yeah. I have a pretty good idea. It involves that guy that you found today, Shade." I said.

"What about him?"

"Something in his and Sarah's past that - I think - led to Sarah ending her career as a mercenary. Something that she had locked away within her own mind to keep from feeling the pain." I said. "Where's Shade? I need to talk to him."

"Sanctuary. Do you need help getting there?" Blake asked.

"No, I'll just teleport there. Get Sarah to our room and set her down on our bed." I said.

"Sure thing." She said as she picked Sarah up and started down the hallway towards my room.

"And Blake," She stopped to turn around, "There are a lot of things in our room that you won't understand. I don't care if you go through the documents, however, I do ask that you refrain from touching anything else."

Blake nodded and resumed heading towards my room.

With Blake gone, I teleported to one of the pews at the front of the sanctuary.

* * *

Now inside, I could see two individuals on the stage looking over the guitars, drums, and pianos that I had put there.

At this point, I felt like I had enough strength to stand again, so I did. Standing up, I got their attention, "Which one of you is Shade Tenebris?" I asked with an authoritative voice.

One raised his hand, "Aye sir."

I sat back down, turns out I wasn't ready to stand yet. I motioned for him to sit next to me, "Come here, I wish to talk to you for few minutes."

* * *

**A/N: Welp, there ya go. 7 mins till 1 am, I need to get to sleep. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.**

**A/N above: Remember the feature in Drake's arms that allows him to send messages just by thinking them? Well Soap, Sarah, and Blake, has that same piece of tech.**

**See you guys next time.**

**SoapiestAuto780 out.**

* * *

*Please read through story and rules before submitting your character(s) or they **WILL **be rejected*

Link to forum to submit your character for What Could Be Better: www. fanfiction myforums/ SoapiestAuto780/ 5761768

**(Remove spaces for the link to work)**


	21. Ch 20: is only through the

****A/N: More plot! This chapter should be a rather interesting experiment for me since I will be writing from Blake's perspective on the last chapter. With that said, let's get started.****

* * *

Chapter 20: is only through the

* * *

**~Blake POV 1st person (This should be interesting.)**

I sighed as I put down my book. _'Great. Now I'm out of books to read.' _I thought to myself as I got up from my bed. I looked around the room that we used while Soap and the others deemed it necessary for us to stay at the church, not that I minded. The room was rather spacious compared to our dorm at Beacon and had it's own bathroom and shower, which in itself was rather large. To be completely honest, I liked staying at the church better than staying at Beacon. Especially since it had the added benefit of having all four of our beds planted securely on the ground.

As I headed to my bookshelf to put away my book, I remembered the name of a book that Soap had suggested to me a while back. _"The Exception"_ if I remembered correctly. I didn't bother looking for it on my bookshelf; I knew I didn't have it, but I did know a place that did.

I grabbed my keys off my dresser and started toward the door. I was about to cross the boundary of the room when out of the corner of my eye I saw Ruby and Weiss sitting on their beds, presumably doing homework. Yang on the other hand was nowhere to be seen, _probably fighting Sam and Drake again. _She had been trying to beet them for several weeks now and was spending every chance she got fighting them.

"Hey Weiss, Ruby. I'm headed into Vale to pick up a few things, you guys need anything while I'm there?" I asked.

Ruby looked like she was about to speak when Weiss cut her off, "I think we're good for the time being. We'll see you when you get back."

I rolled my eyes. I knew what Ruby wanted which was the very reason why Weiss cut her off. "Alright, then I'll see you guys later." I said as I disappeared through the doorway and made my way to the garage.

* * *

As I entered the garage, I thought through the events of the previous month. Soap, on one of his breaks from trying to find Regal, saw it necessary for us to learn how to drive; so, being the multi-millionaire that he is, bought us all cars which he then gave to us upon completion of our Driver's Test. Ruby's was a red themed 2015 Ford Mustang, Weiss's was a white 2014 Buick Verano, Yang's was a yellow 2015 Corvette with black detailing, and finally, mine was a black themed 2014 Dodge Challenger with chrome and grey detailing. Unlike the other cars, and to my pleasure, mine was a convertible.

I smiled at the memory of Weiss complaining that Ruby was too young to drive. Soap's counter argument had two parts; one, Soap and his team are active bounty hunters which meant that, in some ways, they above the law. And two; Soap had friends in the VPD and was able to pull a few strings in order to gain permission from the police chief to allow all of team RWBY, legally able to drive or not, to obtain driver's licenses. Needless to say that Weiss did not win that argument with Soap.

Pushing the memories aside, I unlocked the door to my car and got in. Putting the keys in the ignition, I turned them and started the only thing in the world that I would ever allow to be compared to a cat; my car.

The car now started, and purring loudly, I started toward Vale.

* * *

Arriving at my destination, Tukson's Book Trade, I parked my car and entered the store.

The owner, Tukson, was an old friend of mine from my days in the White Fang, and knowing him, he would have what I was looking for.

As I entered the store, I heard a bell ring.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade. Home to every book under the sun. I'll be out in a minute to help you." I heard a familiar voice say from behind a set of closed doors behind the counter. Within a minute, the owner came out from behind the counter carrying two large stacks of books and placed them on the counter. "How may I-" He looked up, "Oh, hey Blake. What can I get you?"

"Hey Tukson. I'm actually looking for a book that a friend of mine suggested to me. I think he said it was called_ The Exception_ or something like that." I said.

"Who is this _he_ that you speak of? Has Blake run off and gotten herself a boyfriend? Hmm?" He said with a smile.

I could feel my cheeks run hot at his comment. "It's nothing like that!"

He laughed again. "Your reaction says otherwise."

"If you must know, he is an Instructor from Beacon." I said, hoping that he would drop the subject. "Plus he already has a girlfriend."

"Whatever. Your 'friend' must be rather intelligent and into old literature if he's read _The Exception _and liked it." He said, finally calming down.

"Do you have it?" I asked, getting a little impatient.

"Yeah, I have it." He held up the book and set it down on the counter. "So, does this 'friend' of yours have a name?" He asked.

"Soap."

"That's it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded.

"Ok.." He said, obviously not believing me. "You said that he's an Instructor from Beacon not a Professor, that means that he has a job other than Beacon. What does he do?"

"You know, it just hit me. He works, but he really doesn't need to." I said.

"Why's that?"

"He's Remnant's youngest millionaire, and yet he says he doesn't care about money. To answer your question though, he's a bounty hunter."

"Cool. Well he sounds interesting, I can see why you fell for him." I felt my cheeks run red at his statement, to which he just laughed. "Bring him by sometime, I'd love to meet him."

"Bye Tukson." I said as I grabbed the book and left the store.

* * *

Outside the store, I stopped and took a breath of relief. That's when I noticed two objects moving in the alley. With me being my curious self, I investigated.

As I approached the objects, I could see that they were two faunas, about a year younger than me. To me it looked like they were digging through trash cans.

This hit a chord with me. I began to recall all the nights I had to go hungry because my parents couldn't get jobs to feed me. I've seen enough faunas go hungry in my lifetime. I decided to talk to them.

"Sarah?" I heard a male voice ask as I got close enough for them to see me. "Sarah 'Hearts' Kirtsov?"

"No sorry. " He hung his head. "What are you doing?" I asked them. Now that I was closer, I took a good look at the two faunas.

They looked to be about the same age, twins maybe. The guy that had spoke was a crow faunas and appeared to be about 5 foot 6, a little shorter than Soap, and had royal blue eyes and blackish-blue hair that reached his shoulders. On his cheeks were two nasty looking scars, maybe some sort of bullet wound. Everything - his shirt, his pants, and his shoes - he had on him was either navy blue or a shade darker. I could tell just from his build that he had seen a couple of fights in his lifetime.

The girl behind him was a raven faunas. She was about 5 foot 1, and had deep violet eyes and raven-black, shoulder length hair. To me, she looked like a faunas and black themed version of Ruby; cloak included.

"Getting dinner." He said sourly. Probably because I had my bow on and looked human.

I watched them for a few more minutes before I spoke again. "Out of curiosity; If I were to offer you a bed, a shower, and three square meals a day, all for free, would you take it?" I asked.

"Why? Are you offering?" The crow faunas asked.

"Yes; but I do have a couple questions for you." I said.

"There's always a catch." The crow faunas said nearly monotonously.

"Relax. I just want to know if you two are brother and sister, your names, and how you know my Beacon Instructor." I said.

"My name's Shade Tenebris and this is my sister Umbra. As for Sarah, I worked with her a few times while I was a mercenary. Does that answer your questions?" Shade asked.

"Indeed it does. Ready to go?" I asked.

Shade did double take, "You were serious?" He asked incredulously.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I said.

"Because, you're a human. Why would you care about what happens to a faunas?"

I could feel the ends of my lips curl upwards into a grin, "Who said I was a human?" I asked as I twitched the cat ears that were hiding inside the black bow atop my head.

Shade stared at the twitching bow for a few seconds before putting two and two together. He turned to his sister, "Umbra, let's go grab our things. We'll be back shortly." He said, turning to leave.

* * *

I sent Soap a message on my scroll while I waited.

_'Hey Soap. I found a pair of faunas, a brother and sister, digging through some trash cans behind a building. After talking to them, I found out that they are currently homeless and are literally about to starve to death. Do you mind if I offer them a place to stay at the church?'__  
~Blake_

I sent the message and got a reply quickly.

_'What are their names?'  
__~Soap_

I replied.

_'Shade and Umbra Tenebris. Apparently Shade knew Sarah at one point in her life. Said that he worked with her several times as a mercenary. I'll leave the rest of his story for later, too much to type. See you at the church.'  
~Blake_

I got a reply _'Sure.'_ along with directions to an empty room in the church.

I looked up to my two shadows and said, "Let's go."

* * *

When we got back to the church, I showed them to, what would be, their room and handed them a change of clothes and pointed them to the nearest shower.

While they were cleaning up, I had Bucky make two sandwiches which I left in their room along with instructions for them to go to the sanctuary when they could so that they could meet Soap.

With nothing else for me to do but wait, I went back to my room and started reading _The Exception_.

* * *

And I kept reading until I heard a voice shouting my name down the hallway. Irritated that I wouldn't be able to read any further in my book until the noise went away, I got up to see what all the commotion was about.

I opened the door to reveal a 16 year old kid that was moving too damn fast for me to see anything else about him.

"What's wrong?" I asked rather dryly.

"Soap and Sarah just collapsed in the main lobby." The kid said.

This alarmed me. I took off in a sprint to the lobby to find Soap and Sarah on the ground, wearing different outfits? _The clothes can come later Blake, physical wellbeing first! _I thought to myself as I rush to Soap as he struggled to try and stand. I grabbed his shoulders to help him up. Instead, he turned to look at me. "Are you alright?" I asked as I helped him stand and led him toward one of the chairs on the side of the room.

"I'll be fine, I've been through worse." He said with a slight chuckle. "That's more than I can say for Sarah though."

"I see. Any idea what happened?" I asked. _Why is he always joking about serious matters?_ I thought to myself.

"Actually, yeah. I have a pretty good idea. It involves that guy that you found today, Shade." Soap said. _What?_

"What about him?" I asked.

"Something in his and Sarah's past, that - I think - led to Sarah ending her career as a mercenary. Something that she had locked away within her own mind to keep from feeling the pain." He said. "Where's Shade? I need to talk to him."

"Sanctuary. Do you need help getting there?" I asked.

"No, I'll just teleport there. Get Sarah to our room and set her down on our bed." Soap said.

"Sure thing." I said as I picked Sarah up, fireman style, and started down the hallway towards their room.

"And Blake," I stopped and turned around, "There are a lot of things in our room that you won't understand. I don't care if you look at them or go through the papers and books, but unless it's a book or a document, please refrain from touching things."

I nodded and resumed heading towards their room.

* * *

I opened the door to Soap's room and spotted a bed in the corner and headed toward it. I carefully laid her down on the bed, when I did, a screen that was hung above their bed turned on showing Sarah's aura level. Needless to say that it was very low. I watched the bar for a while as it slowly increased. After I was satisfied with her aura level, I took a look around the room.

_Soap was right, there are a lot of things in here that I don't understand. _Technology covered the room.

In, perhaps the cleanest of the corners of the room were eight screens hung on the wall. Seven of them were black, but one was lit up. I realized that all of the monitors were connected to a computer. I looked closer at the screen that was lit up. On it was a reminder that said _"Need to update Bounty Files." _I looked around the room and eventually found the files the note was talking about. As I was about to open the folders, I thought aloud, "Just who are you chasing Soap?"

* * *

****A/N: Why I found that chapter so hard to write will never be known to me. Also hey, Blake has fallen for Soap. This may or may not cause problems for him in the future, but we'll see.****

**** I hope you guys enjoyed. ****

****Until next time, I'm SoapiestAuto780, and I'm out.****

****See ya guys.****

* * *

*Please read through story and rules before submitting your character(s) or they **WILL **be rejected*

Link to forum to submit your character for What Could Be Better: www. fanfiction myforums/ SoapiestAuto780/ 5761768

**(Remove spaces for the link to work)**


	22. Ch 21: desperation and despair

****A/N: Hey Sarah, you ready for the next chapter?****

****Sarah: Yep. I'm ready.****

****Soap: *yells into hallway* Blake, I need you to come here for a bit.****

****Blake: *enters room* Yes?****

****Soap: Time for the next chapter. Ready?****

****Blake: *heavy sigh* I guess...****

****Soap: Then let's begin.****

* * *

Chapter 21: desperation and despair

* * *

**~Soap**

"I would like to talk to you for a minute." I said as he made his way towards me and sat down next to me. I didn't mention it then, but when he sat down, I saw his eyes shift from their natural, royal blue color to a grey coloring; I would have to mention that later. "My name is Soap, if it's alright with you, I need to ask you a few questions."

"Yes sir." Shade replied with military like discipline.

"Before we begin, if you would please drop the formalities while we talk, I would be very appreciative."

"Yes s-. Ok."

I smiled, "That's better. Now, other than my name, do you know who I am?" I asked.

He shook his head, "No I do not."

"Would you like to?" I asked.

He turned his head to the other person in the room whom I guessed to be his sister.

She shrugged when his eyes met hers. He then turned his attention back to me and said, "Why not? I could use a distraction."

I nodded and thought for a moment, "Where do I start? I, along with the rest of my team, am an Instructor at Beacon. But before that, I am a bounty hunter..."

* * *

**~Blake **

"Just who are you chasing Soap?" I thought aloud as I looked at the manila folders in my hands.

There were three of them. One was labeled "Bounties: Completed", the second was named "Bounties: In-Progress", however, the third folder was different. Unlike the other two folders' labels', which were neatly typed, this one's label was sloppily written in, what I could only assume to be, Soap's hand writing. I could only make out the word "Bounties:" on the third folder. The rest of the title was illegible.

I know Soap wouldn't actually write on something unless he had a good reason to. If anything, he tends to avoid pens and pencils unless he really has to. This realization spiked my curiosity. I opened the folder.

Inside were only four files. I read each file name aloud, "Sarah 'Hearts' Kirtsov, Shade 'The Shadow' Tenebris, Tukson, and..." until I got to the last file.

I read it aloud, "Blake Belladonna."

I took out the file and placed the others back in the folder and put that back where I found it.

I opened the file that had my name written on the front and stared reading.

* * *

**~Soap**

"So Shade, can you tell me why one of my students found you and your sister digging through some trash cans behind a building?" I asked him.

"We were trying to find some food. Ever since we came to Vale, we have been living on the streets." Shade replied in his rather soothing monotone voice.

"Might I ask why?"

"Because, I promised Umbra that I would never take another job like the one I had before." He replied.

"What job would that be?"

"Up until two years ago, I was a mercenary. I took whatever job I could get so that I would be able to protect and provide for her."

"Like Huntsmen, Huntresses, and Bounty Hunters - Mercenaries tend to get nicknames after a while in the field that are usually based on an ability, their fighting style, their weapon, something they wear, how they dress, or a combination of two or more things that I listed. Do you mind telling me what your's was?" I asked him.

Shade stayed silent for a minute before responding, "How do I know that after I tell you, you won't just report me to the authorities?" He asked me.

I responded with a question of my own, "You know I am a Bounty Hunter, do you know what some of my nicknames were?"

He shook his head.

I gave a smile before I responded, "I've had many. Among them are Fire Walker, Ghost, The Smokey Mist; but the one that is the most well know is Demon."

I watched as Shade's eyes widened.

"That name alone makes me the most wanted person on the planet when it comes to major crime networks. I trust you with that information, so why not trust me with yours?"

He thought about this for a bit before speaking, "Fine. My name was Shade 'The Shadow' Tenebris."

"Thank you for trusting me Shade." I paused for a moment, "You said that you left your life as a mercenary two years ago; why? Who or what made you want to stop?"

"My last "job". I was forced into taking a job where I was supposed to kill someone that I had worked with countless times before. They saw her as a threat and wanted her dead because of it." He said, his head lowered in shame.

"And you couldn't just say no?" I asked.

He shook his head, "No. They said that they had people ready to kill my sister if I refused."

"Who were you were supposed to kill? From the way that you were carrying yourself when you said what the job was, I take it that you two were more than just simple colleagues." I said.

He nodded his head, "She was Remnant's most notorious mercenary, but she was also more than that...She was my best and only friend."

"Was?"

"Yes, was."

"You went through with the job?" I asked.

"No, but I almost did."

"What happened?"

"She was in her apartment in Mistral about to go to sleep when I slipped into her room unnoticed. As I waited in the shadows for her to finally fall asleep, I kept trying to think of other options. I finally thought of one, convince her to leave the mercenary lifestyle and disappear; I would do the same with Umbra. So I warned her and gave her enough money, out of my own pocket, for a one-way ticket to Vale. We were going to effectively disappear. After she took the ticket, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. Two weeks later, I tried to contact her by scroll but I never got through. I ended up finding out that someone that matched her description was found dead a half hour outside of Vale. Cause of death, multiple bullet wounds to the head and heart." He said, his monotone voice dipping slightly at the end.

"What was your friend's name?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Sarah 'Hearts' Kirtsov." Shade said rather grimly.

* * *

**~Blake**

The contents of the file that bore my name contained everything; A general description of what I wear, my physical appearance, my weapon and fighting style, my semblance, everything.

As I read further, I found a picture of me as we, myself and other White Fang members, peacefully boycotted and protested for equal rights. I looked at the date the picture was taken. 10 years ago. That was five years before our leaders changed.

I kept reading.

Past the picture from when I was seven was a very detailed description of my past with the White Fang. As I continued reading, I came across another photo. This one was taken the day after the White Fang's change of power took place in Atlas, five years ago.

In the photo, I was standing next to my partner, Adam. Both of us were 12 at the time. In the picture, we were both holding our newly acquired weapons and our blank White Fang masks.

I continued past the second photo and found a detailed summary of every mission I had ever gone on for the White Fang. I cringed as I continued to read through the mission summaries. I came across one last photo. This one was from the day before I left. In it, I was seen smiling, holding my very decorated White Fang mask in one hand and Gambol Shroud, my weapon, on my back. To my side stood Adam Taurus, the only person that I have ever considered family. He was standing to my right with his mask on holding his weapon, Wilt and Blush.

Just below the picture was a printed caption. It read: "Adam Taurus (right) is expected to become the White Fang's #1 within the next few years, Blake Belladonna, (left) is expected to become second-in-command."

A chill went down my back as I read it. _I was supposed to be second-in-command?_

Sloppily handwritten, by I assume Soap, in red ink below the printed caption was another; however, this one made my stomach churn. "These two have caused enough damage already. They are now the two most wanted people in the White Fang and must be eliminated, not captured, at all costs."

I gasped as I read the caption. _Eliminated? _I was so distracted by the thoughts that were going through my head, that I failed to notice Sarah getting up from her bed and approach me from behind.

* * *

**~Soap**

"What did you do after Sarah left?" I asked.

"I quickly returned home, grabbed Umbra and any loose money I could find, and headed to the first flight out of Mistral which happened to be to Vacuo."

"You went to Vacuo?"

"Yes." He said, nodding his head. "We stayed there for a year and a half. We earned a paycheck by taking whatever odd jobs we could find. We did this for a while until I recognized one of my old employers while out doing a job. I Analyzed his motives and found that he was after me. He caught wind of my disappearance from Mistral and wanted to tie up a loose end personally. I waited for an opportunity to escape. Once I finally found one, I took it and returned to our temporary home. I told Umbra that she had 5 minutes to pack. After that, we left on a flight for Vale."

"What do you mean when you say that you 'Analyzed' his motives?" I asked him.

"My semblance is Analysis. Activated, I am able to predict someone's fighting style and find weakness in said fighting style. After extended observation, I am also able to predict their behavior and guess their habits and full personality. At this point, I would also be able to accurately guess a person's true ulterior motives." Shade replied.

"Is that why your eyes turned grey as soon as you sat down?" I asked him.

"How were you able to see that?" He asked.

"That explanation is for another time. However I do want to know, what has your analysis of me revealed to you?" I asked.

"It revealed that you are a rather mysterious man. But from what I can tell, you are a kind, understanding, caring, and compassionate person that will go to no ends to make sure that those you care for are safe and happy."

I smiled, "That's right." I thought for a moment, "You know, I have to thank you." I said with a slight laugh.

"For what?" Shade replied.

"For telling your friend, Sarah Kirtsov, to run to Vale when you did." I replied.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because, in doing so, you caused me to meet my girlfriend of more than two years." I said.

"I did?" Shade asked, confused.

"Yes." I replied.

"Who is your girlfriend?"

"Sarah 'Hearts' Kirtsov." I said.

* * *

**~Blake**

"Remember that offer that Drake mentioned?" I heard a voice behind me say.

I spun around on the ball of my feet, with my hands up, ready to fight. It was Sarah. _She has her hood down, that's a first. _

"Easy. Before you attack, please realize that my name was in that folder along with two others."

I realized that she was right and put my hands down.

"Well. Do you?" Sarah asked me.

"Yeah?" I said when I realized something, "Shouldn't you be resting, after what happened in the lobby? I mean are you alright?" I asked her, suddenly concerned.

Sarah responded in such a way that I could tell that she had thought about it for a long time beforehand, "The people I care about come first, everybody else is second, but I am last. Soap and I both share this philosophy. With that said, don't worry about me. The offer that Drake was referring to was the same that Soap made to Bucky and Sam, and it was the same offer that was made to me. It went something like this: If given a chance to start your life over - with a clean slate; every piece of your past, good and bad, would be gone - would you take it?" Sarah said.

* * *

**~Soap**

Shade immediately sat up straight, "She's alive?"

"Yes."

"But how? That report said that she died five days after she arrived here in Vale."

"I am the source of that report. Along with all of the things that I said earlier, I am a hacker. Which, by the way, is how I became Remnant's youngest millionaire. The reason why she was declared 'dead' is because Sarah Kirtsov technically does not exist anymore."

"I'm not sure I follow." Shade said.

"I'm pretty good when it comes to grasping concepts and ideas, but you lost me as well." I heard a female voice say behind us.

Turning around, I saw that the voice came from Shade's sister, Umbra. "Hello, I take it you're Umbra?" I said sticking out my hand towards her.

"Yes that's me." She said, firmly grasping my hand and shaking it.

"Nice to meet you. But what I meant was, after I, literally, first ran into her and she agreed to stay with me, I 'Legally' changed her last name to Hearts to stop her pursuers." I explained.

* * *

**~Blake**

I looked back to the folder that originally held my file and saw Sarah's file sticking out. "What was your choice?"

"You know my story." Sarah replied.

"You said yes?" I asked.

She nodded her head.

"Then why is there still a file here with your name on it?"

"Grab my file." She said.

"Ok~." I said, not sure where she was going with this.

"Open it and turn to the last page."

I did as I was told.

"Read what it says aloud."

"Five days after arriving in Vale, Sarah Kirtsov was found dead half an hour outside of the city limits. Cause of death: multiple bullet wounds to the head and heart." I turned to her, "You faked your own death."

"No. My last name changed, rendering that file useless. I am not Sarah Kirtsov, my name is Sarah Hearts." She said.

"Then why keep the file if it no longer has any use?" I asked her.

"Even in starting over, it's still good to remember the past, for those who do not learn from it are destined to repeat go get some rest. I'm sure that all of this has been a bit of a shocker for you, so get some sleep. Goodnight." She said as she laid back down in her bed.

"Good night." I said, leaving her room.

As I was about to cross through the room's threshold, I stopped and turned around, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why go through all this effort just to see people change?" I asked.

"You'll have to ask him yourself. Goodnight Blake."

* * *

**~Soap**

"You know, I managed to convince Sarah to stay with me by asking her to answer a question." I told Shade and Umbra.

"How so?" Umbra asked, speaking for the both of them.

"By asking her the same question and making the same offer that I am about to make to you." I paused for a breath. "If you were given the chance to start your life over from where you are now, all of your past -good and bad - gone, would you take it?"

Shade and Umbra looked at each other before answering, "Yes."

* * *

****A/N: I made it to 21 chapters!****

**Akumas Kawashima: Thnkx for the compliment. I would like to think that my writing has gotten better over the course of 66K+ words, not counting this chapter. The reason for the cramped writing style during the first few chapters is mainly the fact that it was mostly backstory and world/lore building for my characters. I tried to make Soap as real as possible so that people would be able to connect with him and be able to understand why he acts and thinks the way he does; in me trying to do so, I ended up making myself into a character.**

**Thnkx for reading, see you all next chapter. SoapiestAuto780 out.**

* * *

Below is a link to the Character submission forum

*Please read through story and rules before submitting your character(s) or they **WILL **be rejected*

Link to forum to submit your character for What Could Be Better: www. fanfiction myforums/ SoapiestAuto780/ 5761768

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	23. UPDATE: We will miss you Monty!

**Hey guys. SoapiestAuto780 here with some rather bad news.**

**I'll be honest with you guys, I never thought that I would have to make a chapter like this.**

* * *

**I'm sure that by now you all have heard the news of the hospitalization of Monty Oum. Well, on Sunday, Febuary 2nd, at 4:34 P.M. CST; our incredibly amazing and talented friend, Monty Oum, died of a severe allergic reaction.**

**To say the least, Monty's work was incredible and changed many, many lives for the better.**

* * *

**I first found Monty's work in the form of RWBY Volume 1, ep. 3, "The Shining Beacon pt. 2" when I was on Youtube just looking for something to watch. **

**When I clicked on the video, I did so thinking it was an Achievement Hunters Let's Play that I hadn't watched yet. I think it's needless to say that I was wrong.**

**Initially, I was honestly confused by whatever the hell I clicked on and closed out of video as it so happened that one of the other Youtubers that I watch had uploaded something. And so I left RWBY.**

**Eventually though – about a month later – I did come back to the video and jumped in head first with renewed interest.**

**Finishing that video, I found myself intrigued and confused. So – with me being my curious self – I searched for and found the Red, White, Black, and Yellow Trailers and began watching.**

**Soon enough, I was caught up with the rest of the world and, to say the least, I was intrigued.**

* * *

**Monty, through RWBY, successfully did something that no other show had ever done.**

**He captured my attention and my imagination; so much so that I began to look forward to Thursdays. **

**After finishing Volume One of RWBY, I remember wanting nothing else but to know more about the girls of RWBY and their backstories; so I searched for more. In a way, RWBY started my obsession with good backstories for characters.**

* * *

**While I didn't necessarily find what I was looking for – the truth behind Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang's mysterious pasts – I did find something that was equally, if not more, intriguing. **

**FanFiction. **

**Looking back now, I think I have put more hours into reading RWBY fanfiction than anything else meant for entertainment.**

**Something I have Monty to thank for.**

* * *

**After reading, and thoroughly enjoying, FanFiction for upwards of six or seven months and the trailer for Volume 2; I began the process of creating my own O.C. **

**Something that no other series, book, or game has ever driven me to do. **

**A few months later, I had a full team of O.C.'s and a desire to try my hand at writing the very stories that I spent so much time reading. Something I never would have done before I found Monty's brainchild: RWBY.**

**I have come a long way in my skill as a writer since I've started, this story is proof enough, and I'll never be able to thank Monty enough for grabbing my attention.**

* * *

**By now, I'm sure that I'm probably talking in circles; but the point of what I'm trying to say is this: **

**Thank you Monty.**

**Through RWBY, you gave me a world that captured my attention and triggered my imagination; which in turn, helped me find a community of people that I am proud to say that I am a part of.**

**Not too mention, making a few friends along the way.**

**In the end, Monty's passion for animating with the sole purpose to entertain allowed me to discover something about myself that I didn't know and, in a way, made the world a better place.**

* * *

**Thank you Monty Oum.**

**For you great works, for RWBY, for everything.**

**We will miss you forever, Monty.**

**As Roxas said somewhere in the Kingdom Hearts series, "Until we meet again, in the next life. I'll be waiting."**


	24. Ch 22: that comes with

****A/N: I hate writing combat scenes, even if they are as short as the one in this chapter, for one reason; I suck at it, it's why I have been avoiding for so long. *heavy sigh* Oh well, I can't get better at it unless I try. Here goes nothing. Also enjoy the longer chapter!  
****

* * *

Chapter 22: that comes with

* * *

**The next day...**

I woke up next to a fully rested Sarah and in good health. While I was worried about her and the flashback that she got yesterday, I knew better than to intrude when it came to Sarah's past. She would tell me when she was ready. Though, as a precautionary measure, I asked Shade to stay away from Sarah for now.

"Hey Sarah," I said as I got out of bed and got dressed. "I'm going to head to the GYM for a bit."

"Alright." She responded. I walked over to her and gave her a kiss before I left.

I stopped at the door, "Hey Sarah?" I asked as I turned to face her. "I don't know what exactly happened yesterday in the lobby, and I won't push it; however, I am curious about something. Why did you push some of what your were experiencing to me?"

"I pushed some of it to you because I knew that you could handle it." She replied.

"That's all I wanted to know. Whenever you're ready to tell me what you saw, I know that you'll tell me saw." I said before I left through the door.

* * *

When I entered the GYM, I saw two other people occupying the room, Sam and Drake. _'Strange, I wonder why they're up this early...' _I thought to myself.

Drake saw me when I entered and approached me. As he did so, I felt his presence enter my mind. _"Morning Soap."_

"Morning Drake, morning Sam. What are you two doing up this early? Normally you two aren't up for another hour or two." I said as I took note of the time, 6:30 am.

_"I wanted to ask you something."_

I leaned against the wall behind me, "Well shoot."

_"Would it be possible for us, myself and Sam, to visit my hometown in Vaccuo?"_

I was honestly surprised, I didn't expect the question, "Yeah it's possible, why do you ask?" I replied.

_"Several reasons. One, It's been over four years since I've seen it and I want to visit some old friends and see if they're still alive; I doubt that they think I am. Two, Sam's been bugging me."_

I raised an eyebrow at this, "For what reason has she been bugging you?" I asked him.

_"She wants to see where I grew up." _He responded.

I thought for a moment, "Sure." I pulled out my scroll and messaged Sarah, _"Hey Sarah; Sam, Drake and myself are going to make a run to Vaccuo for something. I am leaving you in charge of RWBY's lesson for today, which is to be more combat training. Can you do this for me? ~Soap"_

I got a response in less than a minute. I was nowhere near her, but I could feel her grinning like a madwoman through the bond we shared. _"Gladly. ~Sarah"_

I sighed. I sent her another message, _"Please don't hurt them. ~Soap"_

I could feel her disappointment as she read the message. I just laughed as she messaged me again. _"Fine. ~Sarah"_

* * *

**A few hours later...**

"Alright guys, we're here." I said, waking up the other occupants as the Bullhead touched the landing pad.

"We're here already?" I heard a feminine voice say.

"Sam, it's been nearly an hour since we left the church." I said.

"Seriously? Damn." I heard her respond as we exited the aircraft.

"So Drake?" I said.

_"Yes?" _

"We walking or are we driving?" I asked.

_"We're walking. I don't have a car over here. Plus we're not too far from my house."_

"Alrighty then. By all means, lead the way."

_"Gladly." _He said, taking the lead.

* * *

**Meanwhile, back at the church...**

**~Blake P.O.V.**

"Come on girls. I thought you were supposed to be the top team of your year." I heard Sarah yell from across the GYM.

"Says the person who can teleport with her semblance!" I heard Ruby from behind me. It was just her and myself left in the fight, although my aura was at three-quarters and Ruby's was at half. Sarah's was still full. Yang and Weiss had been knocked out of the fight after they rushed her at the same time and collided with each other.

"Ruby, she's not even using her weapons." I told her. This was apparently news to her since her jaw dropped when I said this.

"Would you rather me actually use my weapons?" I heard Sarah ask.

Before I even had a chance to respond, I heard Ruby next to me yell out "Yes!"

"Alright." She said with a grin that looked like it belonged to a madwoman. She reached behind her and pulled out, from seemingly nowhere, two metal pipes. '_What's that supposed to do?' _I thought to myself. She pointed one at Ruby. The pipe began to spark with electricity and continued to do so until the sound of a gunshot was heard.

I looked at my scroll to check my aura level. My aura was fine and remained where it was earlier, Ruby's had dropped to less than a quarter left. "Ruby, your aura!" She looked at her scroll, her eyes widening when she did.

"How?" Ruby yelled.

Sarah flipped one of her pipes, "By forcing my semblance into a small area with only one way out, I can use the resulting effect as a sort of sniper rifle."

I was baffled.

Just then Sarah charged Ruby...

* * *

**~Soap P.O.V.**

"Is this it?" I asked.

Drake looked at the house in front of us, _"Yeah. This is it."_

It was a one-story home that matched the rest of houses in the neighborhood, only this one looked worn-down and uncared for. I saw Drake reach into his jacket pocket to pull out a key.

We entered the house to find a standard living room furnished with a couch and a, at this point, rather out-dated television set. I took a seat on the couch and stretched. "You kids go have fun. I'll be here if you need me." I told them.

Sam and Drake both nodded before they wondered off.

Just as they left my eyesight; General Gunnel appeared in front of me, successfully startling me. "You know, I hate it when you do that unannounced." I told the apparition.

The ghost just shrugged and took a seat next to me on the couch. Just then I saw a rather displeased Drake run past my field of view chasing after a giggling Sam. The General and I were content to watch as Drake, unsuccessfully, tried to catch Sam.

Chris broke the silence, "Makes you wonder."

"Wonder what Chris?" I asked, turning to face the spirit.

"What your life might be like if you had never found them."

"I'll tell you right now, Drake would have been executed and Sam would have either starved to death or someone from the White Fang would have found her and recruited her for their cause."

"No. That's what _their_ lives would be like had you never found them. But you did, you did find them. YOU were the one who gave them a second chance and caused them to meet. You changed their lives."

"Yep, and because of it, I ended up having to watch two six year olds in a 15 and 16 year old body." I said.

"Yeah." Chris said standing up and looking at his wrist. "I should be going now; but before I do, I want you to think about something."

"What's that?"

"How much different would _your_ life be if you never found them. Think about that Soap. Until next time." Chris said as he started to dissipate.

"Until next time." I responded.

* * *

I pondered his question after he disappeared until I heard a knock at the door.

_'I wonder who that could be.' _I thought to myself. I yelled into house, "Drake, someone's at the door!"

A few moments later, Drake and Sam entered the room. _"I wonder who that is." _I heard Drake say in my head as he neared the door.

I just shrugged as I got off the couch, "Why don't we find out?" I responded. Just as Drake got to the door, I spoke again, "You might want to type instead of using your semblance."

_"Why?"_

"Just as a precaution." I said.

He just shrugged and said, _"Ok."_

When he opened the door, Drake was met with a flaming punch to the face that knocked him back a couple of feet. I heard Drake yell in my head, _"What the fuck!?" _When we heard this, Sam drew her custom SMG and pointed it at the door while I dropped into a fighting stance.

Drake's attacker entered the house with a knife in one hand and a lighter in the other. He was about 5'5" and looked to be around 16 years old. He was wearing worn blue jeans, a shirt that consisted of many differing shades of red, a black leather jacket, and sported a silver chain around his neck. His maroon colored hair was greased back which only made his already somewhat unique charcoal eyes stand out even more. Just from looking at his face, I could tell he had seen a lot of time in sun. I was able to draw this conclusion due to the tan line around his eyes where sunglasses would go. He pointed his knife at Drake. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Drake's holo-projector turned on, a text field appearing in front of him, and a sword of ice appearing in his right hand. I watched as Drake thought-typed his response, "Why am I here? This is my home."

"Absolutly fucking impossible. The person that lived here disappeared over four years ago."

"Then what are you doing here?" Drake said.

"That person was my best friend. After the police gave up trying to find him, I swore that I would protect his home." The apparent vigilante said.

"Why?" appeared on the holo-screen in front of Drake.

"So that if he isn't dead and ever returns, he would have someplace to come back to."

"What was his name?" Drake asked.

"Drake Hemington." The kid responded.

I knew Drake was smiling internally when he heard this, "What's your name?" Drake asked.

"Crimson. Wh-"

Crimson never got to finish that statement as Drake hug/tackled him. Sam and I looked at each other confused.

"What the hell?" Crimson asked.

Drake let go of the kid, "Crimson. I can't believe you did that for me."

"What ar-. Wait a fucking sec." He took a good look at Drake. "Holy shit! Drake?!"

"Yep, it's me buddy."

I spoke up, "Drake, you mind telling us who that is?"

"This is Crimson Zarex. My best friend while I lived here in Vaccuo."

Sam stepped forward and outstretched her hand, "I'm Sam Krest, Drake's girlfriend." Crimson took her hand and shook it.

"Nice to meet you." He looked her over, "A faunas...Drake my friend, I must admit, you have excellent tastes."

I laughed when I saw both Drake and Sam blush at his comment. My turn.

I put out my hand, which Crimson took firmly, "Nice to meet you Crimson. I'm Soap."

He looked a little confused, "What kind of name is Soap?" He asked.

"The kind that involves a story that I would rather not tell right now."

"Sorry." Crimson apologized.

"It's fine. Why don't we sit down and talk? Oh and Drake, you can turn off the holo-projector now." I said, turning around and walking toward the couch. Sam followed close behind me.

"Drake, why haven't you said a word yet?" Crimson said.

"Because he can't." I said as I took a seat on the couch.

"And why not?" Crimson asked following my example, placing himself next to Drake on the couch.

"I'll let him tell you." I said, motioning for Drake to show him.

Drake turned to Crimson and lifted his head. He then traced a scar that went down the right side of his neck.

Crimson, however, looked confused. "You got a scar on your neck...I'm...sorry?"

Drake, Sam, and myself all facepalmed.

"What am I missing here?" He asked.

I sighed, "Put your hand on your neck where Drake did on his."

"Okay..." Crimson said, unsure of what I was asking, but did so anyways.

"Good. Now, while your hand is there, say something." I said.

"Um...Hello?"

"Did you feel your neck vibrate a little when you spoke?" I asked him.

"Yeah, why?"

"Those are your vocal chords. Something Drake doesn't have." I responded.

"Why not?"

Just as I was about to speak, I felt Drake's presence enter my mind which told me that he wanted to answer this one.

_"Because, the White Fang cut them out."_

Crimson nearly jumped out of his skin, "Who was that?!"

Drake gave a small wave.

"I thought you can't speak." Crimson said.

_"I can't, however, that's not going to stop me from trying. I'm using my semblance right now in case you're wondering."_

"I thought your semblance was Ice."

"It is. However, in the absence of a way to communicate with others, your body will form a secondary semblance to counter act that."

Crimson looked confused, "My head hurts. I need a smoke." He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and the lighter he had earlier. He stuck one of the cigarettes in his mouth.

"Just don't burn the house down." Sam said.

"Hahaha." He said as struggled to make his lighter work. "Fuck!" He yelled after unsuccessfully attempting to make the lighter work for the seventh time.

_"If I remember correctly, your semblance is pyrokinesis. Why are you using a lighter?" _

"Because, pryokinesis is only the ability to control and manipulate fire, not create it. If I am given a source, I can keep the fire from going out and use it to my advantage, but once it's gone, it's gone. That's why I bring a source with me where ever I go." Crimson said. He tried once more before throwing the lighter across the room and letting out a heavy sigh. "And it looks like I need another one."

"Well in that case, here." I said.

I held out my hand and activated my semblance. At first, my hand was covered in smoke with not a flame in sight, but as I concentrated, the smoke began to dissipate and gave way for flames. As soon as my hand was a ball of fire, I felt Crimson's aura grab some of it and pull it back to his hand after which I deactivated my semblance.

After Crimson had lit his cigarette and smoked it a few times, he sighed in satisfaction. "Much better."

I looked at the time and stood, "Hey Sam, Drake, we should probably be heading back to Vale, we don't want to miss dinner."

"What do you have to get back to?" Crimson asked.

"Our job." I responded.

"What do you guys do?" He asked.

"Several things. We are bounty hunters and we are Instructor at Beacon, and we have students that we need to get back to." I explained.

"Oh, ok. Well, it was nice seeing you again, Drake." He said a little sadly. "It was nice meeting you all as well."

I thought for a second. "Crimson, I am in need of another student to form, what will be, a late starting team at Beacon; would you happen to be interested?" I asked.

He immediately perked up when I asked this. "You fucking serious?"

I looked at Sam and Drake then back to Crimson, "Why not? So, what do you say?"

"Sure. I'd love to. Plus, I've got an Aunt that lives in Vale and it's been a while since I've seen her."

"Do you need to grab anything before we leave?" I asked.

"Not really, the only thing I need is this." He opened the front door and grabbed a skateboard.

_'How did I not see that one coming?' _I thought to myself. "Alright then." I put out my hand. "Grab my hand and close your eyes."

He gave me a confused look.

"Just do it, I'll explain afterwards." I said.

"OK~"

* * *

**10 minutes later...**

"I still can't fucking believe that." Crimson said as I left the cockpit of the, now, pilot-less Bullhead.

"Which part? The part where I said that I am one of the richest people alive, The part where I said I can teleport and fly using my semblance, the part where I said that my Bullhead pilots itself, or the part where I said that Drake has no arms?"

"All of the fucking above." He said as I laughed.

He pulled out his pack of cigarettes and stuck one in his mouth. When I saw this I took them from him and threw them out the window. "What the fuck was that for?"

"If you light up on a Bullhead, you have a very high chance of being sent straight to the ground in the form of a burning wreck." I replied.

"The what can I do to relive my fucking headache?" He asked.

I activated my semblance and formed a guitar shaped ball of smoke. After it was done forming, I activated my necklace's semblance, making the smoke guitar solid.

"What the hell is that?" I heard Crimson say.

"THIS is the remedy to your headache. Hey Sam, you willing?" I asked.

"Which one you thinking?" Sam asked.

"You want to give Beyond Me a shot?" I said.

"Nah, what about We Walk On Water?" Sam replied.

_"This is Living. The acoustic version, not the radio edit."_ I heard Drake say.

I thought about it, "I'm down. Sam?"

"Sure." Sam replied.

"Alright. Crimson, I know that you have no idea what we are talking about..."

"Got that right." Crimson said, interrupting me. I rolled my eyes at him.

"...but after we're done here, this," I held up the guitar in my hands, "is yours. I'll teach you how to play it when we get back to the church."

"Play? What the hell are you doing?" He asked.

I smiled as I began to play, "You'll see."

***Cue: This is Living (Acoustic) by Hillsong Young and Free***

* * *

****A/N: And that's a wrap. I was going to ask whether or not you guys think this is rated M material thus far since I was considering dropping the rating to T; however, now that Crimson has entered the fray, I'm not so sure. I don't know. Let me know what you think guys. ********Regarding the ending, I was thinking about doing something like when I did RATHER BE, but I decided against it. Also, if you guys have any questions or comments regarding anything in the story, don't be afraid to leave a review or send me a P.M. with said question or comment, I love talking to you guys.****

****Well, that's all I have for now. Until next time, I'm SoapiestAuto780, and I'm out.****

****See ya guys.****


	25. Hiatus

**A/N: Hey guys, SoapiestAuto780 here.**

**Because of unforeseen circumstances, I will have to slow, if not stop, the updates that I am giving this story. I have to get a few pieces of my life back together before I am able to put anymore time into the plot. I am not abandoning the story, and do not intend to do so, however, I will just be unable to post as often as I would like for a couple of weeks.**

**For anyone still wondering, I am still accepting OC's and I always will be. I need as many as I can get for what I have planned.**

**Soap out.**


	26. Ch 23: war that our

**A/N: Wow. It's been a long while since I've been able to write. I have to apologize about that. My excuse: school, work, life; Pick which ever one that you think fits best. I do apologize for the extremely long break between this chapter and the last, and unfortunately I'm not too sure that I will be able to get back to updating regularly anytime soon. If anything good has come from my little break, it would have to be that I have fleshed out a few more plot points for future tangents along with figuring out a bit more of the overall lore of my story.  
**

* * *

Chapter 23: war that our

* * *

**24 Years later...**

"I think that's all we're going to be able to get through tonight." I said as I stood up from my chair at the side of John's bed, "We'll pick it up from there some other time. Good night John."

After I kissed his forehead, I turned around and quickly exited the room, trying desperately to hold back the tears that had come with the memories. I couldn't let my son see me like this.

Subconsciously, I made my way to the sanctuary and sat down at one of the pews at the front of the room. Once I was sitting, and away from the eyes of my son, I quit trying to hold back the tears and just let them flow.

I continued to sob for several minutes and it wasn't until after I felt a familiar pair of arms wrap around my shoulders that I managed to start calming down. I looked up into the beautiful pink-white eyes of my wife and hugged her back.

"I miss them so much, Sarah." I said, my voice and body shaking.

"I know. I miss them too." She said, squeezing me tighter.

I smiled and let out a slight chuckle, "To think that every single one of them willingly gave their lives for us;" I paused and shook my head, "it still blows my mind away." I could feel the tears begin to flow again.

"Not everybody that went on that suicide mission died you know." I heard a different, but familiar voice say.

I wiped my eyes and looked up to see the owner of the voice approaching us.

* * *

She was wearing a pair of worn, black, combat pants with a black, skirt-like piece - it reminded me a lot of Yang's skirt - coming off her waist and had her sigil embroidered on the right hand side of it. She also had a black belt around her waist and a black bandanna tied above her left knee.

On her upper torso, she had on a gray, t-shirt that showed off her toned stomach. On top of that she had a long sleeved, black, leather jacket that was shorter than her t-shirt. Around the collar of the jacket and the waist of her pants was a gray, fur-like material. She also had on a pair of tight, black leather gloves that both helped with the handling of her weapon and hid some of the scars that she had received over the many years of fighting both the Grimm and the many demons that inhabited the war.

Around her neck was the necklace that she, with my help, created during the first lesson that I taught to her and her team. Just above the necklace was the face that reminded me every time I saw it that I had a duty, and a promise, to uphold.

Her face, as well as her neck, was marked in various places with scars; scars that gave her naturally lightly toned face a dark, if not unnatural, beauty. On the left side of her face - carving a straight path from her jaw-line, crossing over one of her golden orbs, settling just above her eyebrow - was the most prominent and well-defined of all of the scars she possessed; one that, since receiving it, has been the cause of the majority of her nightmares. Just above her golden, cat-like eyes, was her straight, black, flowing hair that reached down to her waist.

On her back, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice, was her weapon. Attached to one of her belt loops on her left was a mask. A Grimm mask, but not just any Grimm mask. It was a mask that was once colored white and bore witness to the monstrous acts that she willingly committed in the name of gaining equality; actions that she has since regretted.

It was a mask that was now colored black showing her resent towards the terroristic acts she once committed.

In time, it - along with it's counterparts of red, silver/blue, and yellow coloring - became a symbol to which resentment, spite, and hatred, sourcing from the many evils of the world, were directed towards. Something that, in time, was replaced with revere and love; especially from a few of those evils.

Her team, alongside my own, became the world's most infamous and renowned bounty hunters the world had ever seen and fighting force that was not to be messed with.

Her team was a team that I loved as if they were my own children. They were a team that, during the war, inspired hope for a peace filled tomorrow; something that I wish all of them had a chance to see.

To me, she represented the very people that I wish that I could have saved, but couldn't.

Other than myself and Sarah, she was the last living member of the family that we had, in time, created.

She was an individual that I, time and time again, had come to respect and love.

Approaching myself and Sarah was the last surviving Huntress on Remnant, and the only member of team RWBY that still walked the scorched remains of Planet Remnant with her own two legs; Blake Belladonna.

* * *

"I know Blake." I replied solemnly.

She sat down next to me in the pew, "You know that was our decision to go, right?" She asked me.

I looked her in the eyes, "I know." I replied honestly, my eyes finally clear.

I checked the time on my scroll, it was almost midnight; I smiled at this. Silently, and subconsciously, I asked a question to no one in particular, _"It's almost midnight and the moon is supposed to be in it's shattered phase, do you want to go see if the sky is clear tonight?"_ After a second, I got two responses.

_"Yes." _Said the first voice, which belonged to Sarah.

_"Always."_ Replied the second voice, which belonged to the other woman sitting beside me; Blake.

I smiled and moved my head in an upward motion, signaling for them to grab on. Once they both grabbed hold, I teleported myself to the roof with company in tow.

* * *

The night was, as I thought, clear.

I positioned myself against one of the walls and put my arms around the two women that I treasured the most; one on my left, Sarah, some one whom I loved as more than just my wife, and one on my right, Blake, who's company I cherished and loved as my own sister.

We laid like this for hours - both of them wrapped in my arms, simply enjoying each others company - just staring at the stars, content for the moment.

After a while I decided to break the silence as I had something that I wanted to address in their presence, "Hey Blake, Sarah." I said aloud, hoping that they wouldn't be asleep.

From both of the women laying against me, I got inquisitive hums indicating that they were listening.

Rolling my eyes, I continued, "Remember how I said that I wanted to make a plaque of sorts to put at the memorial site?" I asked.

I got two nods for a response. "Well, I finally came up with something that I want to put on it."

Blake sat up fully and turned to look at me, "Well..." She said, somewhat impatiently.

I smiled and chuckled lightly at the child-like behavior that Blake was displaying. "I'm glad to see that the 24 some odd years that you have lived since meeting me have taught you nothing in the way of patience and maturity. If anything, it seems that you have taken after Ruby's likeness and become even more immature since then."

Blake didn't say anything back, instead she just stuck her tongue at me and made a face showing that she wasn't amused.

I laughed again before I continued, "It goes something like this: _'In the end, the only things that really matter, are the ones whom we love, and the ones who love us back. For it is love that brings us hope, even against all odds, and it is hope that gives us the strength and the drive to do the things that cannot be done without it. It is only through the desperation and despair that comes with war that our true intentions are not only revealed to others, but revealed to ourselves as well. As such, if we do not put love for others above all else, then what else are we supposed to be doing here? For it is only through love that true peace is obtained...'__" I stopped to take a breath,_ "That's as far as I was able to get before I was distracted. I'll let you two know when I finish it though."

"You know Soap, sometimes you scare me when it comes to how deeply you think about things." Sarah said, giving me a kiss.

I kissed her back but otherwise didn't respond; instead I just laid back against the wall and continued to stare at the stars.

* * *

We did this once more for a while. Eventually, though, Blake broke the silence to ask me a question, "Hey Soap?"

I looked down at her and raised and eyebrow to indicate that I was listening.

"I was listening to you and Sarah tell John your story, and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind continuing it?" She asked.

I looked at her with a questioning look, silently asking her "Why?"

She saw this look and explained, "I know the parts that I experienced, but aside from that, I only know bits and pieces of the whole thing. Please, can you tell me? Starting where you left off with John?" She asked, giving me a pair of golden puppy dog eyes.

I had already figured that she would ask for the rest of our story; so with a heavy sigh, I agreed. "Sure."

I sat up, getting myself into a more comfortable position before I began. "That night after I got back from my trip to Vaccuo with Sam, Drake, and Crimson in tow; I went up to the roof, on a night much like this actually, to sit and admire nature's beauty. Eventually, Sarah joined me. We talked for a little while about various things, but eventually we just laid there, underneath the stars. It was around that time that I decided to propose to Sarah..."

* * *

**A/N: I do have to apologize again for the relatively short chapter compared to all the others, I blame life. But tell what you all thought about it, especially what you think about the two surprises that I threw in and Blake's outfit. I do not claim credit for the design though, that goes to ****Essynthesis on DeviantArt. Here's the link for that: **** essynthesis,deviantart,com/ art/ RWBY -Blake -Belladonna -Squall -Clothes -425080252**

**Anyways, it might be a while before another chapter comes out, but it depends on how much free time I can get during spring break next week; but I digress.**

**Until next time.**

** Soap out.**


	27. Ch 24: true intentions are

**A/N: Hey, it's time for another chapter.**

**Speaking of which, I am doing a re-work of the first chapters so that they are up to par with the quality of the story as of late; which means new details and (possibly, maybe) new plot points and backstory characters that I will draw on later in the story. The plot will for the most part, other than perspectives and details, will otherwise remain the same.**

**Also, 1,500K+ views! OH SHIT!**

**Wow; it's humbling to think that a silly idea, that I thought to write down, has been viewed by so many people. Wow. Just, wow. You guys are amazing.**

**Next chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 24: true intentions are

* * *

That night, after I got back from my trip to Vaccuo with Sam, Drake, and Crimson, I went up to the roof to think and to sit and admire nature's beauty.

Once I was on the roof, I sent Ozpin a message about the possibility of forming a late starting team.

_"It all depends. Send me the candidates' names and I'll let you know after I've done my research on them.  
~Ozpin"_

_"Dusk Rogue, Umbra Tenebris, Shade Tenebris, and Crimson Zarex." _I thought for a moment and added one last bit before I hit send, _"Now that I think about it, the name DUSC seams appropriate for a team name. Also, let me know what you find on Dusk and Shade; I have a particular interest in their backgrounds. ~Soap"_

A minute later, I got a reply:

_"Will do. Bring them by my office in two days and I'll have your answer by then.  
~Ozpin"_

I sighed as I put my scroll away and laid back against the wall behind me and stared at the stars.

* * *

I don't really know how long I was up there; eventually though, Sarah joined me on the roof.

Sarah, in her usual fashion, tried to be as sneaky as possible; but I heard her anyways.

"Sarah, I know that's you trying to sneak up on me." I said, not bothering to look at her.

"Aww." I heard her say, disappointed that she wasn't able to sneak up on me.

I smiled as I heard her footsteps nearing me, "That hasn't worked since the first week we met."

"I know." She replied, sitting down next to me. I put my arm around her.

"Then why do you continue to try?" I asked.

"In hopes that I might catch you off guard one day." She replied as she laid her head on my shoulder and snuggled up against me.

I chuckled softly, "You know, I think the definition of insanity goes something like: continuing to do same thing expecting a different result."

"Oh quiet you." She replied softly.

* * *

"Hey Sarah?" I said after a long time of silence.

"Hmm?"

"You know the four that we picked up over the past couple of days?" I asked.

"Dusk, Umbra, Shade, and Crimson right?"

"Yep."

"What about them?"

"What do you think about them?"

"As a possible team or what?"

"Just in general." I said.

"Hmm. I'm not too sure what to think about Shade and Crimson yet; but I've had a chance to talk to Dusk and Umbra. It seems like Dusk has had a rough past; but you know more about that than I do, so I can't say too much. As a person though, he seems like a bit of a loner." She let out a soft chuckle, "Maybe he'll hook up with one of the girls from RWBY."

"Now that would be interesting to see. You know that he's a faunas right?"

She looked at me incredulously, "He's a faunas?"

"Yeah, actually; He's a wolf faunas."

"Then how come I didn't see any wolf ears?" Sarah asked.

"He cut them off." I said nonchalantly.

"He cut them off? Why?" She said, suddenly concerned.

"From what I can tell, he cut them off in a last ditch attempt to try and fit in with society; if I remember correctly, you gave me a similar reasoning for hiding that you were a faunas when I first met you."

Sarah appeared to think about this for a second before responding, "Yeah. I did didn't I?"

"Have you seen his weapons?" I asked.

"No. Why? What are they?"

"He has two double edged, black and grey daggers that are covered in red runic lettering."

"That's a really close range weapon; I take it he's rather agile and fast to be able to use those."

"Yep." I said, taking a deep breath. "You said that you also got to talk to Umbra?"

"Yeah."

"What'ch ya think about her?" I asked.

"I like her, plus it's about time we get another female winged faunas."

"Why is that?"

"Now Sam has someone that she can compete with, flying-wise. You and I are too fast for her."

I laughed at that, "Yeah, I guess she does. How about Umbra's personality?"

"Hmm. She seems to rather shy or maybe self-conscious about herself, and it sounds like she blames herself for the disappearance of her and her brothers' parents. She thinks that bad things happen to the people around her. Quite honestly, I don't think that's the case; but only time will tell. Anytime that she was talking to me, and I looked in her violet eyes, I saw a sort of intelligence burning behind them; kinda of like when I first met you. From that, and the way that she spoke, I could tell that she is really, really smart. Possibly even rivaling you and me."

"That's pretty much what I got from her too." I said as she laid her head back on my shoulder.

* * *

"Hey Sarah, I have something I want to ask you." I said, sitting up.

She sat up and looked at me, "Ask away."

I silently pulled a small box out of my jacket pocket as I spoke, "How long have we been together now?"

"Next week will be three years; why?"

"Just wondering." I said, laying my head back against the wall behind us.

"Where do you think we'll be three years from now? Relationship-wise?" I asked her, bringing my head back up.

Sarah appeared to think about this, "I don't know." She said shrugging her shoulders. "Married or engaged at least; still together though, that's for sure. Why?"

I stood then offered her a hand to help her up. Once we were eye to eye, I answered, "You'll see."

I got down on one knee and held the box in my hand behind me while I held both of her's with my other. "The day I first met you, as you laid asleep in my arms, I silently asked myself a question as my own mind drifted to sleep. I asked myself 'What Could Be Better?'. Well...over the years of being with you, I found my answer. Spending the rest of my worldly existence...with you. I...I" I started to say.

"What are you trying to say Soap?" Sarah asked me.

I sighed and smiled before I spoke, "I guess what I'm trying to say is this," I pulled out the box from behind me and held it up for her to see. "Sarah 'Hearts' Kirtsov, will you marry me?"

As I opened the box, I heard Sarah gasp. "It's beautiful."

Inside the box was a ring with a black body; the outside of the ring was mostly black. Halfway to the main jewel on either side, inlaid into the side, were red and white square diamonds that alternated until they reached the crowned, giant, white diamond in the center. On each side of the crown were three smaller, light pink diamonds; underneath that, on both sides, was a single small black diamond. Etched onto the main jewel was my sigil, a tribal cross, standing straight in the dead center of the jewel; wrapped around the top of the cross was Sarah's sigil, two hearts intertwined.

"A perfect ring for a perfect woman." I said, placing the ring on her finger.

She examined the ring under the light that was being given off the shattered moon in the starlight night for a few moments before I spoke again. "So how about it Sarah? Are you willing to stand by my side on this crazy journey of life I'm on?"

Sarah dropped to my level, took my hands in her's and looked me in the eyes with her own soft pink and white colored gems, "Chris 'Soap' Gunnel;" I nodded as Sarah began reciting an old poem that I knew well, "Forevermore, till the end of our days..."

She paused as if she was waiting for me. After a second, I got the hint, "We shall protect the Innocent..."

"Defend the weak,"

"And ensure that those whom we love the most,"

"Are safe from the monstrosities of this world."

I continued, "From the Grimm,"

"To the common day thief,"

"We will watch over them for as long as we are able."

Sarah began the next sentence, "Even though we have both pledged to play our parts,"

"We will still make time for each other,"

"And keep the love between us,"

"Good and well."

"Together," We both said together.

I continued on, "You,"

"and I."

"We shall stand together, till the end of time."

Sarah continued, "For till death do us part, I will love you Chris,"

"As I shall love you Sarah."

Together we finished the poem, "Come now, let us stand side by side and prove to the world that - even amidst the chaos of this crazy ride we call life - life can be beautiful and that fairy tale endings DO happen."

"Till death do us part?" She asked with a wide smile spreading across her lips.

"Till death do us part." I confirmed.

I leaned forward until my lips met her own soft, sweet lips.

I don't remember much about what happened next that night; at the time though, I really don't think I cared.

* * *

**A/N: There you have it, Soap's proposal packed into another, somewhat, short chapter. I really do have to apologize for both, how long it's taking between updates, and how short the chapters are; but life's a bitch. Hopefully it won't be as long until the next chapter.**

**See you guys next time.**

**Link to image for ring is: i01,i,aliimg,com /wsphoto /v0 / 32287235995_1/ White-and-Red-Cubic-Zirconia-Emerald-Cut-Women-s-font-b-Black-b-font-font-b,jpg**


	28. Ch 25: not only revealed

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* * *

Chapter 25: not only revealed

* * *

I stood on the stage as I waited for the future members of team DUSC.

Dusk Rogue, Umbra Tenebris, Shade Tenebris, and Crimson Zarex. An interesting bunch no doubt.

I only waited a few minutes before they filed in one by one. First was Dusk and following close behind him was Shade. Then came Umbra and Crimson; I could honestly see those two as a couple in the future. I would have to tell Yang and Sarah to go play matchmaker.

Once everybody was lined up in front of the stage, I spoke, "Good morning."

I got a unanimous, "Morning" in response.

"I'm sure that you all are wondering why I called you here."

They all nodded.

"Well let me explain. As I told you, I have talked to the Headmaster of Beacon about the possibility of forming a late starting team and he said that he would have an answer by the end of tomorrow; he may say yes or he could say no. Regardless of his answer, you will be taught to fight the Grimm as Hunters." I paused to breathe, "Dusk, Umbra, Shade, and Crimson; you four will be known as team DUSC." A holo-projector turned on behind me and displayed their team name. "You will face many trials and hardships on your path to becoming a Hunter; of this, I am sure you already know. As a team, you will face them together. While right now, you are complete strangers to one another, in time you will inarguably become friends; and who knows," I looked at Umbra and Crimson, "maybe something more."

Umbra raised her hand, "Do you have any advice you can give to us before we start training?"

I smiled, "I can think of two things; never give up and always remember who the real enemy is."

I jumped off the stage and landed in front of them. "Lesson one..." I began.

* * *

After a few minutes of explaining and demonstrating; I showed them how to, using their semblances, create their individual keys to the church. In the process of doing so, each member of team DUSC learned what each other's semblances were.

Dusk's was literally just an amplified version of aura. He called it 'Barriers'. It allows him to create, literally, barriers with his aura. That was how he explained it, but I had a feeling that he could do a lot more than just that.

Umbra's was interesting. She called it 'Astral Projection'. Put simply, she could transport her consciousness elsewhere. As soon as she demonstrated what she meant, I delegated her to be the intelligence specialist for the team. Now that I think about it, I have a feeling that she found out about Shade's 'job' using it.

Shade's semblance was as it was before, 'Analysis'.

Crimson's was also exactly the same as it was before, 'Pryokensis'.

After we got that out of the way, I spoke, "You have the rest of the day to prepare yourselves for initiation tomorrow. Talk to each other and get to know them; their weapon's, their strength's, their weaknesses, anything and everything that you think might be useful to know when going into battle. Team DUSC, you are dismissed."

I left the sanctuary and headed to my room.

* * *

**~Blake**

The book that Soap recommended to me _"The Exception" _was actually really good. So good, that I didn't want to put it down when he called us to the GYM.

Reluctantly though, I did and made my way to the GYM with the rest of Team RWBY.

As we made our way down the hall, I went over the events of the past few weeks in my head.

We, Team RWBY, received our Driver's License, we went on a field trip with Professor Goodwitch to the Forever Fall Forrest to collect sap, Weiss and I got into an argument regarding the White Fang, Weiss revealed that she had a somewhat unpleasant past because of them, and I revealed my secret to my team. I was a little surprised how well they took it; well...most of them.

At first, Weiss saw me as some sort of spy for the White Fang, but eventually Ruby, Yang, and I were able to convince her otherwise. To be honest though, I don't blame her for her reaction. If I were in her shoes, I would have done the same.

I entered the GYM seconds before the rest of my team did.

Soap was standing in the center of the room with his team next to him. We, RWBY, lined up in front of him.

"Hello girls." I heard Soap say.

We all responded, "Hello."

"Remember how at the beginning of the year, I said that I would be taking you with us on bounties if one came up?" He asked.

We all nodded.

"Well, one has come up. Time for you to prove that you can handle yourselves in the field and show us why you're the highest ranked team in your year."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ruby do a silent cheer. I laughed softly at the display. She was so calm and serious when she was fighting but so childish anytime she that wasn't.

Beside me, I heard Yang speak, "What? The mailman go missing? That must be a rather bounty-ful event."

I shot her a look. She just shrugged.

"Girls, this nothing to be joking about. Unlike when you fight in tournaments; when you are out on bounties, death is a very, very real possibility. So please, be prepared. The details on who we're going after have been sent to your scrolls; you have 60 minutes to prepare. Dismissed." Soap said as he, Sam, Drake, and Bucky all turned around and exited the room.

We nodded and turned around to leave when we heard Sarah speak, "Girls. Unlike us, you are unknown to the people that we are going after. Let's make sure we keep it that way; change your outfits so that only your teammates, and us, can recognize you."

"Why?" Weiss asked.

"Because, people like the one we are after have friends. Friends that want to get back at the people who put their buddies behind bars. They have tried to kill us multiple times before. They have hired mercenaries, assassins, and hit-men to try and kill us. I would rather that you not go through the same experiences that we have. Make whatever changes you need to but regardless what you end up doing, you will be receiving a mask to conceal your faces. Take this into account when you make your changes." She paused for a moment, "Think of it like this; your own parents should have a hard time recognizing you in whatever you choose to wear. Blake, would mind staying for a moment?"

I nodded.

The rest of my team left while I stayed behind. Once they were gone, Sarah spoke, "Do you still have your old mask from when you were in the White Fang?"

I froze. Even though Sarah was a faunas and hated the White Fang like I did, I never expected such a question. "Y-yeah. Why?"

"Is it still white?"

"Yeah bu-"

"Good. Bring it with you and don't change a thing about it. Where we're going, there's going to be White Fang soldiers and you are going to need a way to get past them. You can leave now." She said.

I nodded and left.

* * *

Ruby jumped up screaming, "Alright Team RWBY! We've got out first bounty mission!"

"I'm not exactly sure that's something to be happy about sis." Yang said.

"I hate to say it, but I have to agree with Yang. I mean, what's with this disguise stuff?"

Just then I entered the room, "Sarah said that the place we're going to is probably going to be teaming with White Fang members."

Weiss froze and turned around to look at me. "White Fang?"

"Yep."

"Weren't uhh-you at-uhh one point a part of the White Fang?" Weiss asked, obviously scared that she was treading dangerous ground.

"Yes and no. The White Fang I knew is long gone. The only people that are left are murders and terrorists." I looked away and said quietly to myself, "and _him._"

Apparently Yang heard me, "Who?"

I sighed and decided not to delay the inevitable. "_He, _the person I am referring to, is Adam Taurus. My old partner." I looked at the time. "Look, I'll tell you later; we better get moving."

* * *

**60 minutes later...**

"Girls!" I heard Soap say from the cockpit. "Sarah take over."

I watched as Soap left the cockpit and entered the main cabin of his massive Bullhead.

"I believe you three will be needing these." He pulled out three Grimm masks from behind his back and handed them to Weiss, Ruby and Yang. "You will also be needing these." He gave us all some sort of data chip, one that looked like it would...plug into my scroll.

"What are these?" Yang asked.

"Disguise devices. They'll go into your scroll. They will help you blend in until our cover is blown and give you three," he pointed to Weiss, Ruby, and Yang, "an animal trait."

"Blake's won't?" Ruby asked.

I rolled my eyes and took off my bow. Once my bow was out of the way, I wiggled my cat ears.

"Oh yeah."

"Yang, if you would, put on your mask please." Soap asked her.

She did.

"When our cover is blown, this will happen. Command override: deactivate cover." He said to the mask.

When he did, Yang's white Grimm mask changed. It changed to yellow and had red, white, and black swirling designs covering the front of it. To be honest, if I didn't know that it was Yang under the mask, I would be terrified.

Yang took off the mask and looked at the front of it. When she did, she nearly jumped back from it.

"Weiss, Ruby. Your's do the same thing. Ruby's is the color that you would expect and Weiss; your's is silver and blue." Soap said.

"What about Blake? Doesn't she get a mask?" Ruby asked, concerned that I would be mask-less.

Soap looked me in the eyes and nodded his head, "Blake, if you would."

I sighed and pulled out my mask. When I did, I heard Weiss gasp sharply.

My mask was white and was heavily decorated on the left with swirls of red and black. On the right side, in red cursive handwriting, was my las name. Belladonna.

"This is my mask from when I was in the White Fang. The higher rank you are, the more decorated the mask can be. When I left, I had just been promoted to Capitan." I said.

"But now, you resent what they have done." He stuck out his hand, "Hand it here, let's make sure that they know that." I handed it to him.

"Won't they just know that it's Blake if she wears it?" Ruby asked.

"Not if I change it."

"My last partner knew I was going to run, so he planned ahead of our last mission. He planted explosives on the train cars ahead of me and after I severed the connection between me and him, he let the side I was on gain enough distance before he detonated the charges. Too bad I saw the explosives and got away in time; but they don't know that. The White Fang thinks I'm dead. If anybody recognizes me, they will think that they are looking at a ghost."

Soap handed back the mask.

I gasped when I saw it.

It was as black as Soap's hair when he was mad. It still had the designs that it had earlier, but instead of just covering the left side, they covered the entirety of it and my name was no longer on the side of the mask. After I moved it around in the light a little, I saw my name written in silver on the right side of it.

"The red and black parts of the designs on the masks will glow when you need to intimidate someone. That goes for everyone else's masks as well. On this mission, you will need to adopt the way of ninja's and assassins, fighting and moving through the shadows. Well...not exactly ninjas and assassins; but you have to change your fighting style from what you use at Beacon."

"You said 'when' our cover is blown, not if. Are you planning on getting caught?" Weiss asked.

Soap smiled wickedly, "I'm counting on it."

"How will we know when that is though?" Ruby asked.

Soap smiled again, "Do you guys know what my nickname, as a bounty hunter, is in the crime world?"

I stayed silent while the rest of my team shook their heads no.

"They call me 'Demon.' You'll know when our cover is blown when soldiers are screaming and yelling about 'the Demon'. When that happens, lethal force is authorized but only if necessary and try to keep collateral damage to minimum." He shot a look at Yang who turned away and started whistling.

"Are you all ready?"

We all put on our masks and activated out disguises. Our masks changed to white and we were covered head to toe in White Fang garb and, from experience actually being one, looked like real White Fang soldiers.

We each gave a thumbs up indicating that we were ready.

"Good." He turned to the cockpit, "Sarah, set her down a ways from the base. It's time to see if our friend is right about this."


	29. Ch 26: to others, but also

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* * *

Chapter 26: to others, but also

* * *

**~Blake**

I had to admit, it felt weird being in White Fang clothing. I never got the chance to try them on before I left, nor did I really have a reason to since I was such a high rank; and being in a holographic version of them was odd.

I felt the Bullhead jostle when it finally landed.

"Alright, she's down. Let's go people." Soap said.

_'I will never understand why men call their toys "she".'_ I thought to myself.

Once we were all out, Soap called back into the vehicle, "Bucky, get some distance between yourself and the base."

"You got it." Bucky replied as the Bullhead took off again.

Once it was gone, Soap nodded to Drake and instantly I felt his presence enter my mind.

_"No vocal communication right now. Alright, we're looking at a typical White Fang rally; should be nothing more than 1,000 troops. A walk in the park."_ I heard Soap's voice say in my mind.

Just then, Weiss's voice rang out in my head, _"1,000 TROOPS! This is a walk in the park?"_

I saw Soap smile when he replied, _"Absolutely. Sarah and I have dealt with worse on our own. Much, much worse. Be thankful that so few are here."_

The thought of Soap and Sarah having faced worse odds than this, and walk away from it, comforted me. But it also unsettled me; how many lives had they taken over the course of their own lives thus far? To be honest, I didn't want to know.

_"If you two have dealt with worse, then why are we here?"_ I heard Ruby's voice ask.

_"According to our source, three weeks ago, they started doubling up patrols. Then a week ago, they doubled up security again and shipped in 100 mercenaries. Just one mercenary is enough to go head to head with an entire battalion of the military. And yes Weiss, that includes the Atlas military. No White Fang rally in known history has ever needed that kind of security." _Soap's voice answered.

_"I can confirm that statement." _I said. _"During my years in the White Fang, they have never hired any type of outside security; especially for a rally of all things. If they're hiring mercenaries to help protect a rally, then something, or someone, big is there."_

_"Bingo." _Soap's voice responded.

_"So who exactly are we going after? The file you sent us had information from 8 years ago, then it jumped to yesterday."_

I watched as Sarah's face darkened before she responded, _"Carrie."_

* * *

**~Sarah (oh boy, this should be interesting)**

_"Carrie." _I said quietly as I looked away from the group to try and contain my anger.

Subconsciously, I growled quietly as the memories came flooding back.

Just then, I heard Weiss gasp softly. _"Soap, your hair; the red streak is fading."_

I didn't need to see my fiancé's face to know that his eyes widened in worry when he heard this.

_"Sarah, We'll get her. I promise." _I heard Soap say.

Soap put his hand on my shoulder and I unclenched the fists I didn't know I was making.

I turned around and found myself looking into Soap's worried eyes.

I sighed and signaled that I was fine.

"Let's move. I'll answer whatever questions you may have on the way." Soap said as he looked to the group.

* * *

We walked for about ten minutes in silence before the other cat faunas in the group spoke, "Who's Carrie?"

Soap answered, "Someone from my fiancée's past."

"Fiancée? When did this happen?" Yang asked from behind me.

"Last night. Now's not the time though. Sarah, should I let you explain who Carrie is?"

I sighed again before I began. "Major Carrie is the White Fang's third-in-command. Ruby, you are right to point out that, until yesterday, the only information that we had on her was from 8 years ago. Information that I personally collected. What isn't in that file are the monstrosities that I watched her personally commit. Things that I hope nobody else on Remnant has the misfortune to see."

"What didn't you include?" Yang asked.

I squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to hold back the memories.

"She was my friend, my best friend. We lived together in an orphanage outside of Vale. The orphanage was our home. One day, I got up and she wasn't in our room. I went downstairs to find a massacre. After I recovered from the shock of that, I heard a scream come from outside. I went to a window and looked out just in time to witness Carrie execute one of our human friends. She killed them all; every single one of them." I stopped as I took a breath.

I glanced around the group. Weiss and Ruby were looking at me strangely and I had an idea why. My voice was monotone again; but at this point, I don't think I cared.

"What the hell? What kind of messed up person do-" Yang started to ask.

"I'm not done yet." I interrupted her as I attempted to force back the tears. "After she was done killing all of the humans that were there; one by one, she had her men bring out my faunas friends. She then proceeded to extend a hand to them; I don't know what exactly she said since I was behind a thick pane of glass, but I assumed that she offered them a place in the White Fang's ranks. Each and every one of my, our, friends refused. She tied them up, gathered them in a pile, alive, in the center of the yard, and dumped the contents of 100 Burn Dust containers on them. Weiss, since you're the resident Dust expert, what is Burn Dust most commonly used for and what happens when it comes in contact with an open flame or spark?"

I watched as Blake's face fell when she heard my question. Seems that she knew exactly what happened; either by witnessing it herself or by another possibility that I didn't even want to consider.

"That's easy; Burn Dust is most commonly used as propellant in all types of ammunition. If, in an open environment, it comes in contact with a flame or spark it...it..." Weiss trailed off as she arrived at the answer I was seeking.

"It what?" Ruby asked, not connecting the dots.

"It ignites. It burns so hot that not even water can put out it's flame; the only way to stop it is to let it burn itself out." Blake answered angrily. She turned to face me, "She burned your friends alive."

I nodded my head, "Yes and I watched it all, helpless as I was frozen in fear. Even now, eight years later, there are nights when I still hear their screams and see their burning faces in that unstoppable inferno." I paused for a moment, "Do you know what happens when anger flows into aura unchecked?"

They shook their heads.

"In the body of a ten year old, it can cause damage to parts of your body and mind; namely, the eyes. Do you know what color my eyes were at the start of that day?"

Everybody shook their heads no.

"Baby blue. At the end of the day, they were the color they are now; but that's not all it did. When we find Carrie, you'll see what else it did." I sighed as I finally finished.

* * *

"Let's keep moving." Soap said after a minute of silence.

"Hey Soap?" Blake asked.

"I'm listening." Soap said not turning around or stopping to answer.

"How did you get this information?" She asked.

"Do you guys know of team SLVR?" **(Team SiLVeR)** He responded.

Blake shook her head and said, "No I do not."

"Wait, I sort of remember them. Sebastian, I think, is their leader's name; though the last time I saw him was over a month ago in Professor Port's class." Ruby said.

"Was he actually paying attention to that fat man?" Weiss asked.

"Actually, I think he was staring at Blake; though I'm not quite sure." Ruby responded.

"Yep. That's them. Sebastian Wong is his name. 5 weeks ago, he came to me asking if I could help him out in getting Ozpin's permission to go after his sister." Soap said.

"Why does he want to go after his sister?" Yang asked.

"I didn't hear the entire story; but from what I heard, his sister helped kill their parents and destroy the village that they grew up in, just outside of the kingdom of Atlas. He claims that when he was 14, he was out hunting when he came back to find his village on fire. He said that he then ran to his home to find his sister standing over the remains of his parents with blood on her blade and a psychotic smile on her lips. He claim that his sister, Violet, proceeded to attack him. Eventually, a man attacked him from behind and yelled at his sister, telling her to run. He said that he killed his attacker, but was unable to stop his sister from slicing his back. After slicing his back, Violet left him for dead and left with what was left of the people that had invaded and destroyed his village. After that, he claims that a Huntsman found him and nursed him back to health, training him and helping him forge his weapons in the process. Since then, he's been hunting down his sister and killing any of her contacts. After four years, he applied to Beacon thinking that he would be able to track his sister down quicker." Soap took a breath.

"Did you help him convince Ozpin?" Yang asked.

"No, I didn't need to. When he heard who destroyed Sebastian's village, he gave him a green light; no questions asked. After that, Team SLVR disappeared. Apparently his search led them to this White Fang base. Sebastian contacted me earlier today saying that he might have found something for us and that he sent in one of his teammates to see if he could get some inside info on who was going to show. He contacted me again a few hours later to tell me what he found." Soap finished.

"Are we going to be meeting him?" Ruby asked.

Soap stopped walking and turned around.

"Me? No. You? Yes." Soap responded with a smile.

This made Ruby confused. I shot Soap a look and his smile faded.

"I'll explain. Sam and Ruby, you two will be meeting up with Sebastian and Victor from SLVR. Sebastian will fill you two in on the going ons of the base. After that, you four will be on sniper duty."

"Got it." Sam said, acknowledging what he said. Ruby said nothing, but nodded.

"Sebastian has a bow and Victor has a sniper rifle so they'll be able to help out when things get crazy. You'll have to go through the base to get to the sniping position that they found, so don't cause any trouble. Blake and Weiss, you two are with Sarah and I; we'll be acting as one of their Mercenary/White Fang patrols and see if we can get close to where the rally will be held. Drake and Yang, since you guys are the heavy hitters and need to get up close to do any real damage, you will posing as prisoners. Well, Drake is." Soap said with a smile.

As soon as he heard this, Drake growled loudly which made me jump slightly.

_'__I forgot that even without vocal chords, he can still growl.' _I thought to myself.

_"Why do I have to play the prisoner?"_

"Sorry buddy, if you can think of any other way before we get there; I'm all ears." Soap replied, bringing a slight smile to my face. I knew that Soap was making Drake the prisoner only because he doesn't like it; the fact that both Drake and Yang were the tanks of their respective teams was just a bonus.

"Yang, you will be posing as a regular White Fang member, hence the disguise. You and Drake will meet up with the rest of Team SLVR, Ivory and Larry, who have been posing as part of a _three_ person White Fang/Mercenary patrol and will be out patrolling when you intercept them. The third member of their patrol is an actual White Fang member who they will be taking out when you meet them. Just warning you two now, they will more than likely kill the guy; from what I've heard so far, the guy that they patrol with is a pretty bad person. They said that the guy brags about how many kills he's gotten; so let them do what they want to the guy. They are going to bring you to the VIP's. Once you find out who is here, radio back and let us know. After that, lay low until things get crazy."

"How will I be able to tell who's who? There wasn't a picture in that file you gave us." Yang asked.

"The masks that I gave you all have built in H.U.D.'s. They'll do the work confirming who it is, but you will still have to radio back."

"Alright. Will do." Yang replied.

"Drake?" I asked.

_"Yeah?"_

"Do us a favor and make sure that you _disable the alarms this time_." I said.

Drake laughed, _"Good times."_

"Drake, I'm serious. I'm not about to fight another attack Bullhead." I said. This seemed to make all of team RWBY start to freak out; now it was my turn to laugh. "Relax girls, I was just kidding." I looked away from the group before I spoke again quietly, "It was two attack Bullheads."

I turned back to group, "Seriously though, please make sure that you disable the alarms; and while you're at it, see if you can catch any communications leaving the compound asking for help. I would rather not get shot out of the sky when we leave."

Ruby looked confused when she spoke, "How is he going to catch communications?"

Soap answered, "One of his prosthetic arms has a built-in scroll and radio."

"Oh." Ruby said, satisfied with his answer.

"Let's move."

* * *

"Everybody that hasn't done so yet, activate your disguise and pair up. Team RWBY, remember, change how you fight. Otherwise we are going to be in a world of hurt when we get back. Also, Ruby and Yang, change your names; you two are unknown to the White Fang and let's keep it that way. Yang, you're Blondie and Ruby you're Rose."

"Wouldn't that be the same as just using our first names?" Weiss asked.

"Nope. There are hundreds of Roses out there, same goes for Blondie; before you ask, yes I have met someone named Blondie before. I'll show you their file when we get back if you don't believe me. Weiss and Blake. You two, however, don't have many people out there with the same last names; plus, either one of your names are a dead giveaway on who you are. So Weiss, you are going to be White, and Blake, you are going to be Black."

Weiss appeared to think about this before she responded, "O.K."

"We're almost there." I said as Soap and I activated our disguises.

"Hey Soap?"

"Yes Yang?" Soap replied.

"How-no, Why do you and Sarah know how to do this at the age of 18?" She asked.

"Simply, because someone decided killing the family of a five year old child, right in front of him, while his village burned down around him was a good idea."

"Why?"

Soap stopped and turned around. "Because. Four people out there in the world, saw what I was, what my family was, as something of a threat. They see who _we_ were to be dangerous." He took a breath. "Yang, you know about my past. Do you know what that thug, that held me hostage as I watched my family die, said to me as he went to put his knife up to my throat?"

Yang shook her head no.

"He said something to this extent. 'At last, this world has been purged and the last safe haven for the monsters is gone. As the last of them, you will learn first hand what happens when you try to bring good into this land. You will die as your own enemy. As a demon. For it is said, that from dust we are born; and to th-' I moved and made sure that he never finished the sentence. As I lowered what was left of him to the ground, I finished his sentence, 'and to the dust we shall return.' I do what I do because I want to protect people from monsters like that. No one should ever have to witness their family die like that." Soap turned around and started walking.

He looked over his shoulder as he did. "By the way, I'm not 18; haven't been since a week ago. Let's move people, we got a job to do."

* * *

"4:00 check-in for a Mr. Wong." I said over the radio.

"Who are you and how the hell did you get this frequency?" The voice on the other end replied.

Soap gave me a look before taking the radio. "What?"

"Come on Sarah, let's take this seriously. We have people to impress." He said as he turned his attention back to the radio. "Sebastian, I believe you said that you found something of interest for us?" He pushed a button on the radio, making a screen appear.

"Oh, Instructor Soap. Nice to see you." Replied the face on the other end.

"Nice to see you too; for now, please just call me Soap."

The kid, Sebastian, looked to be about 18, was probably about 5'9", had chocolate brown eyes, mid neck length chestnut brown hair, and overall, was rather handsome. _This is the guy that was staring at Blake? Wow, if I wasn't already engaged to Soap, I might go after him. _I whistled in approval.

"Hey, I heard that." Soap said. "What'ch ya got for me?"

"Nothing good. Just over a thousand troops and mercs. They're planning something."

"Why does everybody think a thousand troops is a lot?" Soap asked.

* * *

**~Blake**

Weiss and I were sitting near a tree about 10 feet away from Soap and Sarah in silence. To be honest, I didn't really mind it; Weiss, however, did and apparently wanted to know more about Soap and Sarah.

"So, what's up with Soap's past?"

I looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"He said something about watching his village burn down around him, what was he talking about?"

I stared at her blankly before it finally clicked in my mind. "Oh. I'm sorry, I forgot. You and Ruby didn't hear Sarah tell us about Soap's past. Well...he's pretty much said everything that's needed to be said."

"OK~ then what about Sarah? You seem to be the one that spends the most time with them."

I took a deep breath and sighed. "Sarah's...complicated. She watched her best friend turn on her and kill their friends. You remember that human that she said she watched Carrie kill?" Weiss nodded her head. "Well, his name was Geoff. He was Sarah's love interest at one point in time; when she watched him get shot in the head, she cracked."

"So, she's mentally unstable?" Weiss asked, trying to get more out of me.

"Yes; but to be honest, both of them are. Soap's mind, even though he will protest against it, is fractured beyond all repair; the same goes for Sarah. They wondered for years without ever feeling the emotion of love. Something that every child should feel. Then when Soap met Sarah and vice versa, they saw each other as a source of love and comfort; I guess that's why they're so protective over each other. They complete each other so perfectly that together they can be considered mentally stable." I paused. "Do you ever wonder why Soap and Sarah's room is on the other side of the church from all the other rooms?"

"I never really gave it much thought, no. Why?"

"Remember when Sarah mentioned hearing her friends scream at night?"

Weiss nodded her head.

"That's why. She tends to have nightmares about all the people she's killed and the friends she's lost. The same thing happens to Soap every once and a while; except for Soap, it's the family he never knew and the people that have died because of him. From what I could tell, the people that slaughtered his family did so because of what they believed; something that he says that's been since abandoned." I said.

"You say that like you don't believe him." Weiss said.

"I've read the book or doctrine, whatever you want to call it, that governed their lives. Everything that's there, all the qualities and lessons it has, are things that we look for in Huntsman and Huntresses'."

"Then why isn't Beacon teaching from it?" Weiss asked, raising a good point.

"Well, there could be many reasons, among them is the definition of a word that we use so casually today that it's true meaning has been dulled to be within the acceptable standards of our society." I responded.

"And what's that?"

"Love."

"Love?" She asked, obviously not believing me.

I nodded my head. "Yes. By their holy book's definition; love, at the very least, is the willingness to take the place of another in death so that they may live on in your stead. If you told someone today that that was the true definition of love, they would probably give you the look you're giving me now. There's a song that I found in Soap's music archive that just barely touches this kind of love during the bridge. It goes like this:" I said.

I cleared my throat as I sat up.

* * *

_"To be honest, I have no clue what I was thinking, right then and there. I had never sung before in my life, not even in the time immediately after you showing me."_

_"But you sang anyways."_

_"Yep."_

_"You know I remember that day and Sarah and I heard you, and for having never sung before in your life, it was very beautiful."_

_"Thanks..._

* * *

After gathering what courage I could. I sang.

_In the brand new life of a brilliant spring  
__The promises of a wedding ring  
__I can see Your love  
__See Your heart  
__Oh how wonderful You are_

_In a mother's touch  
__A father's pride  
__A friend who freely gives his life  
__I can see Your love  
__See Your heart  
__Oh how wonderful_

"Love, as it ought to be in it's simplest form." I said. "Love can cure the broken-hearted, give guidance to the lost, and give meaning to an otherwise meaningless world. Soap said that before he found love in Sarah and slept with her, and yes I mean that in every sense of the phrase, he had never experienced a full night's sleep. Once he did though, he said that he lost two things. One, his virginity."

Weiss made a face of disgust at me when I said that. I smiled at her reaction, but continued on.

"And two, all of his fears and worries." I finished.

Weiss gave me a questioning look, "His fears and worries?"

I nodded my head.

"So he's not scared of anything?"

"Nope. Not even death."

"Not even death?" Weiss asked incredulously.

"He said that he welcomes it. When I first asked him about it, he replied with two things. One, the chorus of a song and a saying: 'the only thing I fear in this world, is losing the one's whom I love and care for the most.'." I took a breath, "That includes us you know, it's why he's so protective over us. The disguises, the safety measures; all of it is to make sure that we are kept safe."

Weiss kept quiet for a little before speaking again, "How did the song go?"

"hmm?"

"I mean the one that you said Soap quoted, how did it go?"

I took another deep breath before I started again.

_'Cause I wanna run on greener pastures_  
_I want to dance on higher hills_  
_I wanna drink from sweeter waters_  
_In the misty morning chill_  
_And my soul is getting restless_  
_For the place where I belong_  
_So I can't wait to join the angels and sing  
__My heaven song_

Weiss said nothing, but I continued anyways.

"He says that if his day comes before ours, he'll welcome us to our places among the stars."

Weiss was quiet, probably processing all that I had said. I interrupted her thoughts, "You know, Sarah told me something once; something that she didn't just come up with on the spot. My best guess for the reason behind what she said is that it's the very phrase that she lives her life by. She said: 'Those that I care for are first, everybody else is second; but I am dead last.' All of BNTY embraces that saying, all of them would freely give their lives for us."

"I don't get it."

"Get what?"

"Get why they would do that. It doesn't make any sense to me."

I chuckled softly before replying, "Same here. And to be honest, I don't think we'll ever really make sense of it; or at least for a long time anyways."

* * *

_"You know, it's funny. When I spoke those words, I never really realized how true they would really become later on down the line."_

_"Did you actually say all those things about me and Sarah to Weiss?"_

_"I did."  
_

_"Did you ever find an answer as to why we embrace death and put others before ourselves?"_

_"No. But I think I have a pretty good idea..._

* * *

****A/N: FUCK! 3,774 Words for the story in one sitting! I was going to make this chapter longer, but I want to got to bed. I probably won't be posting this chapter until the morning though. More people will see it if I do. warewolf35! I need a bounty on Shadow, one of Violet's contacts.****

****I really don't have much else to say. uhh..Review, rate, and follow i guess? I don't like to ask for handouts (unless they're O.C.'s) but I would love to hear what you guys have to say about my story, but I can't really do that when there's nothing to hear. Please send any questions, comments, or confusion that you might have, my way. I'll be sure to answer them as soon as I can.****

****Also FUCK IT. I'm posting it now.****


	30. Ch 27: revealed to ourselves

**.**

* * *

Chapter 27: revealed to ourselves

* * *

**~Soap**

"You and the rest of your team are aware of the plan?" I asked into the radio.

"Yes, Larry and Ivory are on their way out to meet Yang and Drake now." He said on the other side of the radio.

"And you've scouted out and secured the location of a sniper's nest?" I asked.

"We've actually found two possible locations; one on the North side of the base and one on the South. Both have excellent sight lines on the building we suspect has our VIP's and multiple escape routes; should the need arise." He replied.

"In your opinion, Huntsman, which position would be optimal?" I asked.

"The south. The building in question has more exits and windows on that side, however, there's more open ground between the nest and the building and, not too mention, less cover in the nest. Also, the north side has a landing pad that's currently empty; but that could change in a moment's notice."

"Then I would suggest splitting up; two from my group are on their way to you now to help you out when things get crazy." I said.

"_When _things get crazy? Surely you aren't planning on gambling with death, are you?"

I said nothing. Instead I just smiled madly and stared into the camera on the device. It didn't take long for Sebastian to get the hint.

"You can't be serious." Sebastian sighed heavily. I heard him quietly ask himself, "Why me? Just why me?"

"Because you came to ME for help in convincing Ozpin to let you after your sister, and you also got me interested; so you get ME for help."

He sighed again, "Who are you sending me and what do they look like? I need to know who I'm working with so I can plan accordingly."

"Look for Sam, she's from my team. She's about 5'2", has red-brown shoulder length hair, royal purple eyes, and has a pair of 10 foot long, pure white hawk wings. Other than that, she looks like a standard White Fang grunt; mask included."

"Anything on the mask and what is her weapon?" Sebastian asked.

"There's nothing on the mask; and it's weapons, plural. Her main is a custom .50 caliber sniper rifle built in such a way that, if needed, it can perform the duties of an anti-material/personal/air/tank rifle."

"Can I get some sort of visual or at least a general idea to go off of in regards to her weapon? I have a feeling that's going to be how I find her."

"Probably." I confirmed. I had to think about this because honestly, there was nothing else in the world that came close to how Sam's weapon looked. "Hmm. Combine a Istiglal Anti-Material Rifle with a SRS, then strip that to the bare minimum as far as parts go. If it wasn't needed to keep the gun together or function, other than the sight or suppressor, she removed it. She also has a custom MP5K smg for mid-close range firefights and a shotgun baton for any close range emergencies."

Sebastian's face was one of bewilderment, "Why does she carry so much? Why not just find some way to combine them like my bow and cutlass combo: Bianca."

I rolled my eyes and laughed, "Have you forgotten? My team and I are bounty hunters, not huntsman and huntresses'; we do things a bit differently than you do. Among them, not naming weapons, how well we use our semblances, carrying more weapons than necessary, and being a bit reckless; but that might just be us. Also, we are talking about Sam here; I wouldn't be surprised if she found some way to turn them all in to some sort of car."

"OK~. What about the other one?" He asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Do you know team RWBY?" I asked.

He perked up immediately when I asked this, "Yeah, what about them?"

"Then you're familiar with Ruby Rose and her appearance?"

"I am." He said confidently.

"Good. She's coming with Sam to help assist you."

"I take it she's disguised as a White Fang solider as well?" Sebastian asked.

"Yes she is. Although, I will say it now, you will not recognize her."

"Why not?"

"The technology I gave her made sure of that. I would advise that you just look for Sam." Just then, I heard something behind me; it was Blake..singing?_ 'Huh, she has a nice voice.'_ I thought to myself.

"Make sure you fill those two in on what's happened since you guys disappeared from Beacon. By the way, I would suggest splitting yourselves up: Ruby and Victor, and yourself and Sam."

"Why?"

"As soon as things get to where we'll need help on the ground, Sam and Ruby will jump down to help us out. Plus, at that point, we'll only need one person to cover each side." I paused, "If that's all, let's get this show on the road." I said, moving to shut off the radio.

"Affirmative."

* * *

"Let's move girls. We've got work to do." I said as I approached Sarah, Weiss, and Blake.

I reached out my hand and helped up, first Sarah, then the others.

Once she was standing, Sarah discarded her short-sleeved, zip up, hoodie revealing both her, white and light red long sleeved t-shirt, and her soft pink and white cat ears to the outside world for the first time in a very, very long time.

* * *

_"Hey Sarah?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"Why did you always leave that hood on and hide your ears? I mean, yeah I kept mine in a bow, but I did eventually stop."_

_"Originally, I hid them to keep myself from remembering the memories of Carrie and the constant reminder that she somehow lived through our first encounter; but at that point, it was nothing more than habit. After that mission though, I didn't have anything left to hide them with. Left with nothing to use to keep me from hiding from myself; there was nothing I could do but embrace it and move on..._

* * *

She handed me her jacket and told me two words that made Weiss and Blake's eyes wide.

"Burn it."

"Are you sure, Sarah?" I asked her.

She nodded, "I'm sure."

As I burned the jacket, she reached up to the shoulders of her long-sleeved shirt, grabbed a handful of material, and ripped off the sleeves.

It had been a while since I had seen her this exposed. In fact, I think the last time I saw more of her skin than that was...well, let's try to keep this somewhat appropriate.

"I'm done running. This time, I'll make sure Carrie doesn't walk away." She said. All along her left arm was a beowolf scar that stretched it's way from her elbow to her wrist. I glanced at Weiss and Blake; both of them were staring at Sarah's right arm. I didn't look for I knew that if I looked, I would only get angry.

On the underside of her right arm, burnt into her flesh like a branding, was a single word. One that she knew all too well. "MONSTER"

Sarah turned and stared toward the White Fang base. When she did, I heard Weiss gasp again.

"Soap, your hair again."

I turned and looked at Sarah. Her right arm, from where the branding would be, was slightly glowing a blue color. I watched for a minute before I felt Sarah's memories starting to seep into my mind; as they did, the glow slowly changed to the color of blood.

I finally stepped in and put my hand on her shoulder. "Sarah." Instantly, the glow and memories stopped. She turned to look at me, "We'll get her. I promise." I hugged her.

As I did, I felt her relax in my arms. "thanks Chris" I heard her say quietly before I kissed her.

When we broke apart, I turned to Weiss and Blake, "Do you understand now why Carrie needs to be dealt with?"

They both shook their heads.

"Those words on Sarah's arm; she didn't do that to herself, someone branded her. That someone is Carrie's second-in-charge. That same person, is the very reason why Sebastian and his team came out here in the first place."

"Violet." Weiss said.

"Yep. Violet Wong; Human and Faunas trafficker, murderer, and part of the shadow organization that's been hunting me since the day that they failed to kill me when they attacked my village." I said. After a minute, I spoke again, "We should go before we delay this any longer."

They all nodded. Blake and Weiss donned their masks and Sarah took out both her weapons.

I let the girls get ahead of me. As I started to follow them, I thought I heard something behind me.

When I turned around and looked; I didn't want to believe what I was seeing.

Standing where Blake and Weiss were sitting earlier, was a girl about my age, facing away from me. She was about my height and had long, flowing blond hair that curled at the ends and reach down to her mid back. She was wearing brown shorts, a blue shirt, green running shoes, and a black jacket. On the side and back of her right leg was a scar that looked like it was caused by an...explosion.

_'Oh no. Don't be her. You promised me that you wouldn't give in to their influence. Please no..._

Across her back was a DSR-Precision GmbH DSR-1 sniper rifle; underneath the gun was a sigil that looked to be a shadow that was surrounded by light. In the center of the shadow was the depiction of a bloody blade.

She turned around and looked at me. She had coral pink eyes and a face that I recognized. It was the face of sadness.

"Shadow..." I said, not moving.

I felt my heart sink when she spoke.

"Soap...I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I couldn't follow through with my promise. It's taking everything that I have left to make sure that I don't attack you right now. Please, in the upcoming fight between us, the one that you know that we can't avoid; don't hold back. I want to be free of everything. I'm too far gone now that not even you can save me." She turned around and started to melt into the shadow of the tree. "Please brother... do that for me." Finally, she was gone.

"Shadow...

I heard someone approaching behind me. I turned to find that it was Sarah. "Soap," she looked behind her and saw that no one had followed her, "Chris, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, just thought I heard something." I said as I took her hand and we headed back to the others.

* * *

****A/N: **I suppose that I should include some sort of explanation as to what the hell is going on. Put simply, the actual plot of my story. Starting back in chapter 1; I started my story in the only way I knew how, start at the end and then fill in everything in between. Chapters 2-4 were nothing but backstory and world building and Chapters 5 and 6 were me trying to figure out what the hell I was doing. 7-9 was me figuring out how to write at least one of the girls of RWBY, fortunately I found that in Blake and while Blake and Weiss have probably gotten the most screen time thus far in the show, in my opinion Blake has the most hole riddled backstory; which gives me the ability to shape Blake how I want to. 10-13 was more character, world, and backstory building. 14-18 was me teasing the plot but not actually touching it. 19-22 was me adding more O.C.'s to the story; 23 and 24 was more teasing of the actual plot, or at least a little bit. And finally in 25, we have actually started it.**

**This will be interesting...**


	31. Ch 28: as well As such,

**This is why I don't write combat scenes in any way, shape, or form.**

***Sigh***

**Let the confusion begin...**

* * *

Chapter 28: as well. As such,

* * *

**~Blake**

We walked for about 10 minutes before Soap called us to a stop.

He reached up to his ear piece and turned it on, "Drake, Blondie; check in. Or rather, Drake tell Blondie what to say."

I heard my ear piece crackle before I heard a response.

"Hey Soap." I heard Yang's cheery voice say over the radio.

"Have you and Drake met up with Larry and Ivory?" Soap asked.

"I believe so."

"Describe them." Soap said.

"Ivory's about 4'9" and looks, honestly, like a girl. He's got cabbit ears, hair goes down to his neck and is mainly white and looks like it's tipped in gold. He's currently dressed like a White Fang member. Larry looks about 5'8", got short silverish grey hair, and has two different colored eyes. The left one's emerald green and the right one's just boring grey. He's wearing a grey t-shirt, black jacket and pants, has loafers on, and has a pair of sunglasses on top of his head."

"What are their weapons?" Soap asked.

"I don't see any on Ivory, but Larry has an M1 carbine with an attached bayonet."

"Yep that's them. Alright, proceed according to plan with caution. We don't know how well armed the regular White Fang troops are beyond the standard swords and random rifles."

"Got it. Blondie out."

"Sam, Rose; check in."

"Hey Soap." I heard Sam's voice reply.

"Hey Sam. Standard procedure." Soap replied.

"Sebastian looks to be about 5'9", has chocolate brown eyes, chestnut brown hair that reaches the middle of his neck and the ends are a little spiky. He's wearing a red and black leather jacket, a grey t-shirt, blue jeans, and black running shoes. Victor's about 5'8", has sky blue eyes, and has dirty blond hair cut military style. Or at least was cut military style, it's been five weeks since they've been in the city, so it's a little longer. He's wearing a white and blue long-sleeved, button down shirt, has khaki pants, has white running shoes, and has a knife holster strapped to his right leg. Their weapons match the one's you described earlier."

"Good, proceed as planned. Soap out."

"Got ya, Sam out."

After the crackle of the radio had stopped, we waited another minute before we moved again.

* * *

"We're just about there girls, any questions about your masks or anything of the sort?" Soap asked over his shoulder as we walked.

"Why do they fit so well?" Weiss asked.

"Because you're bonded to it." Soap responded.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean that over the past couple hours, aware of it or not, you've been pumping aura into it. When you do this to an object long enough, it eventually takes to the aura imprint that you've been forcing into it until it fits just right. In the same way, if you ever have the need to wear your mask outside of bounties, you don't need to worry about what it looks like. Your aura will tell it what needs to be on it. Think of it like disguise on demand, for masks." He explained.

"But how?" Weiss asked.

"If you want the real answer, we could stop for an hour while Soap tries to explain to you all of the complex technology that went into the making of that mask." Sarah answered.

Weiss remained quiet.

We reached a clearing. On the other side of the clearing was the front entrance to the base. Soap nodded to me and Sarah.

He didn't need to use words to tell me what he wanted us to do. Sarah and I were both faunas, as such, we had much better eyesight than Soap or Weiss.

"Two guards. Either side of the gate." Sarah said.

"The patrols are likely on a schedule. If we go at the wrong time, they will raise the alarm." I turned to Soap, "Tell me, how did you manage to get Sam and Ru-Rose in the base without them noticing?" I asked.

Soap smiled, "Sam has wings. Need I say more?"

_I should have known._

"Well, now we wait till the next patrol comes." I said, moving to lean against a tree.

"Or, we try out the changes I did to your mask." Soap said.

I gave him a questioning look.

"You can still look like you did before you left the White Fang. As a captain." He said.

I got the hint, "Oh. Then what are waiting for? Let's go."

* * *

After managing to convince the guard that I was requested to attend the rally, they let us in without a hitch.

"We're in. Everybody report." Soap said quietly into his earpiece as we entered the compound.

"Sam, Sebastian, Victor, and Rose reporting." Sam's voice said over the radio, "We're in position."

"Ivory, Larry, Drake, and Blondie reporting." An unfamiliar voice said. I assumed that it was either Ivory's or Larry's. "No sign of the VIP's, but we can confirm where the rally is being held. Center building, as expected. We're in position and ready to go."

"Good to hear. Let's bag these guys and go home. Good luck and good hunting." Soap said.

* * *

**~Soap**

We moved to a room behind where the rally was supposed to be held.

All was quiet and we had hardly seen anybody on our way in.

Nothing was making sense, why the hell would Carrie want to set up a rally all the way out here and where is everybody?

I clicked on my radio, "Overwatch, anything?"

"Nada."

"Nothing."

"Damn. Alright; keep an eye out, something doesn't feel right."

I heard two simultaneous "Rogers" in confirmation.

I looked at the time on my scroll. "They should have started already, I'm going to go take a look." I said, making my way silently to the door.

When I reached the door, I unholstered my Deagle and turned back to the girls. "One minute. If I'm not back before then, go."

I opened the door quietly and stuck to the shadows on the outside of the room. I made my way to a crate at the back of the room.

I peaked over the crate and saw the massive crowd of White Fang troops silent.

On the other side of the room was a stage raised about four feet off the ground. Standing on said stage were three people, though one of them was off to the side.

I could tell just by the way that they held themselves that they were all women. Of the two that were standing in the center of the stage; the one on the left looked to be about 21 years of age and looked to be about five foot seven. She was wearing armored boots, ripped skinny jeans that showed off her rather toned legs and a sleeveless green shirt that showed off her large...what's the word? assets; she still had nothing on Yang though. Her violet hair was tied into a pony tail that reached down to the middle of her back and had pink highlights in several locks of it.

Even from this angle and distance, I could see her prominent violet eyes that confirmed her identity for me. Violet Wong; Sebastian's sister.

As I watched her, I noticed something; she was visibly displaying her aura and it was flickering. At first it was purple, but after a second it changed to red then went back to purple. _What the hell?_

My eyes shifted to the person next to her. I didn't need to look long to spot the white lioness ears on the top of her head and her full Grimm mask. No doubt about it, that was definitely Carrie. Sarah would be happy to finally get a chance to put her soul to rest.

Finally, my eyes landed on the person off to the side of Violet and Carrie.

My heart sank.

_Shadow, it really is you...what the hell happened to you sis?_

* * *

Shadow was my sister in more ways than one. She was a Gunnel.

My twin sister at birth, she was lucky enough to be outside of our village when it was burnt to the ground. However she was only outside of the village because she had been kidnapped before it was attacked.

I rescued her and many others from being a sex slave in the home of a corrupt politician in Vale seven years ago. At the time, I didn't know she was my sister; it wasn't until after the police raid when they were about to cart her away in an ambulance that I saw my family crest tattooed across her shoulder and I realized that I had one.

At first she didn't believe it either, but I convinced her when I showed her my matching tattoo.

_'What happened to you? Where's mom and dad? Where's Aaron?'_ she had asked me.

My face fell as I pulled out my father's necklace and showed her. I told of the things that had happened. I told her how our mother, father, and our older sister, Aaron, were killed. I told her how I escaped and how I came to be where we were then.

When I finished, her face fell as well.

Eventually, we exchanged scroll information and she got back in the ambulance which took her to rehab. I hadn't seen her since, and yet here she was; working for the other side, ready to kill me with no regrets.

* * *

Shadow was the one who spotted me.

She approached Violet and quietly spoke to her.

After she finished speaking to her, Violet turned and kissed her.

_It seems that she never got over the fact that that a politician wanted her as a sex slave. I guess that would explain why she appears to have lost interest in men._

Violet approached Carrie and relayed the info that Shadow had given her; Carrie in turn stopped speaking to the crowd and instead started speaking directly to me.

"Well well well. Violet, Shadow; it seems that our very special guest has finally arrived. Soap, I know that you're here in the room with us. Now the question is, where is your friend; the one that _killed_ me eight years ago."

_Killed you, what the fuck? _I thought to myself as several mercenaries made their way towards me with their weapons drawn.

"Fuck" I quickly spoke into my radio. "Sarah, they know BNTY's here."

* * *

**~Blake**

"They know BNTY's here. Mission canceled. Leave while you still have the chance." Soap's voice said over the radio.

Sarah said nothing; instead she just started smiling madly.

"He has never used our team name before on a mission and never would he say 'canceled'. Let's have some fun, shall we?" She said.

She quickly laid out a plan for us which we relayed back to the others.

"Attack when all hell breaks loose."

She walked to the door, opened it, and walked through.

* * *

**~Soap**

Sarah walked over and joined me. Together we walked to the center of the room and put our hands up. I looked around the room, pretending to size up the White Fang troops; I was actually looking in the corners of the room, specifically for cameras.

The footage of the proceeding events would need to be obtained so that the White Fang, specifically Adam Taurus, would have a few new legends to worry about.

I found them, one in each corner; all facing the stage. "1,000 White Fang troops + 100 Mercs? Ain't no way in hell we're getting out of this one." I said as seriously as I could to Sarah as a few White Fang troops binded our hands.

They led us to the other side of the stage where several bloody hooks were resting; presumably, they were supposed to be used in moving crates around the room, however it was quite clear to me that that's not what they were going to be used for. After removing our weapons, they strung us up by the bindings on our hands so that our feet weren't touching the ground.

Once we were finally both hanging from the hooks, I turned to Carrie and spoke, "You know Carrie; I've bagged hundreds, if not thousands, of criminals and you have got to be the worst out of all the ones that I've chased. You turned against your own best friend, shot your human friends in the head, and burned friends of your own race alive. I really got to ask, why? What is all of this for?"

She walked up to me and removed her mask; what it revealed was not what I was expecting.

Underneath the full face mask, was a completely crushed skull; devoid of skin, except for where it really mattered, and complete with bits of dead grey-matter covering the front of it.

_Carrie's dead._

When she spoke, the crushed remains of her jawbone moved separately; right and left. When I looked closer, I could see the imprint of a pipe in the center of her chin; effectively splitting the jaw in two.

"Because, demon, _He_ is about ready to be revived and he will need people to do his work through. I can assure you, you shall be the first to witness his splendor." She told me in a demonic voice.

Instantly, I felt my body go slack but before my eyelids closed, I saw a blinding light engulf the room.

* * *

**~Blake**

After Weiss and I watched Sarah go; we left closely behind her, making our way to the front of the White Fang crowd.

We watched as Soap and Sarah were strung up on the cargo hooks, and we witnessed Soap ask his question to the lioness faunas, Carrie, or the person that I assumed to be Carrie.

Carrie approached him and removed her mask.

When she spoke to him, I was reminded of the beast that General Gunnel fought and wounded.

When she finished speaking to him, Soap went completely slack.

Sarah apparently saw this as well and began to struggle against her bindings.

I watched Soap for any sign of life and found that he was still breathing; I also noticed that the red streak in his hair begin to dissipate.

I moved my gaze to Sarah and saw the branding on her arm start to glow a bright blue color. As I watched her, I saw the glow darken to a color of blood.

Seeing this, I turned to Weiss and nodded. We both deactivated our disguises.

Weiss was wearing a black version of her usual outfit, minus the SDC logo, with red gloves. As a precaution, she also dyed her hair black; which, in my opinion, was a good look for her.

I was wearing an all black version of my usual outfit, minus my sigil, and white gloves; everything else about me looked the same.

Within less than a second, Violet's lover was on me with a broad sword. I saw it coming though and managed to move out of the way in time. The sword impacted the place where I had just been standing, completely shattering that part of the wooden stage.

I drew my sword **(I know it's not an actual sword, but I'm being rather general here.)** and dropped into a ready stance. I felt Weiss back up against me and do the same.

"Well, well. It seems we have some visitors." Carrie said. She turned to a White Fang solider behind her, "Apprehend these two." She said pointing to Weiss and I.

The soldier stood there for a moment before her White Fang clothing and mask faded away to reveal Yang.

She rushed Carrie, who stepped out of the way and sent Yang into the crowd of mercenaries.

I looked back to the assassin in front of me. Right as I began to move, two things happened.

One, glass from the windows broke due to the sniper bullets flying through them; two, Sarah disappeared from where she was strung up.

The bullets hit their marks, successfully dropping three soldiers and mercenaries.

The sword weilder in front of me rushed me and I moved to counter.

My blade bounced off her's, sending us both backwards away from each other.

* * *

**~Sarah**

I admit. All I could see was red.

Carrie did something to Chris and I intended to do something about it.

When I was finally able to summon enough aura to teleport away, I saw that chaos was beginning to happen in the rally room.

I grabbed my weapons, rushed Carrie, and swung.

My pipe connected, making a sickening crack against her bones when it did.

I waited for her to recover before I attacked again.

When she finally did, I activated my semblance in my left hand and pulled Soap's into my right. This successfully frightened Violet and her lover, behind Carrie; but she remained standing where she was.

I slowly walked to Carrie until I was about a foot and a half away.

"You're not getting away this time Carrie." I said.

She spoke in a demonic voice. "I'm not scared of you, Sar-. What the?"

She fell to her knees clutching the sides of her head. She looked up at me, hands still at her head, and spoke. This time though, it was Carrie's voice. "Sarah!"

_Carrie?_

"I don't think I can hold it back for very long. Listen Sarah, I'm sorry for what I did eight years ago, but that wasn't me. I was being influenced. Please, just end it; end it now!"

I stood there.

"Please Sarah. As my best friend, please end the pain."

I hesitated, still not sure what to do.

She stood and walked to me. Once she reached me, she got on her knees in front of me and shoved her head into my legs; trying to urge me to end it. "I'll miss you."

"Fine." I said weakly.

I put my hands on her head but made no move to grant her wish. Instead, I quietly started to cry.

"Sarah?"

I looked down at her.

"Don't worry about me or our friends. You've got new friends and a fiancé to worry about now."

I nodded my head and took a deep breath. I pushed both my semblance and Soap's semblance into her head, and overloaded whatever soul she had left and whatever was controlling her.

Once I was done, I took my hands off her head and moved to catch her.

As I gently lowered her slowly dissipating body to the ground, she spoke one last time; though this time it was more like a whisper.

"Me, Geoff, and the others will be waiting for you. Goodbye. I'll miss you; we all do."

Finally on the ground, I closed her smashed and bruised eyes and spoke quietly, "I'll miss you too."

* * *

**~Soap**

_Where the hell am I?_

I looked around. The world in front of me was frozen in black and white.

In front of my was a destroyed village, not my own. Against one of the walls was the General clutching one of his sides in pain, but something seemed off. I looked at the rank on the General's shoulder; it looked like it did before, except he wasn't a general; he was a private.

Suddenly the world snapped into color. Gunnel was slowly being approached by a Beowolf that was ready to pounce him. I could see clearly now that he was bleeding heavily, presumably from a slash wound.

"Dammit Private! You're not going to die on me yet!"

Gunnel shouted to the man. "Sargent Major Hayes! Look out!"

The man turned and shot his bow.

Suddenly the world faded to black and I thought to myself, _What the hell is going on?_


	32. Announcement

**A/N: I don't know if this counts as a teaser or not, but here's the original "poem" that Soap proposed to Sarah with in my Fic: What Could Be Better.**

**Also, read till the bottom A/N as I have two announcements to make.**

* * *

**Edit; 5-8-2015: The poll mentioned below has been closed; however, I am still taking questions for the upcoming Q&amp;A chapter and will continue to until the day before the chapter is released.**

* * *

Forevermore, till the end of our days, we shall protect the Innocent, defend the weak, and ensure that those whom we love the most are safe from the monstrosities of this world.

From the Grimm to the common day thief, we will watch over them for as long as we are able.

Even though we have both pledged to play our parts, we will still make time for each other and keep the love between us, good and well.

Together.

You and I.

We shall stand together, till the end of time.

For till death do us part, I will always love you Amanda.

Just as I shall always love you Chris.

Come now, let us stand side by side and prove to the world that - even amidst the chaos of this crazy ride we call life - life can be beautiful and that fairy tale endings DO happen.

~General Chris Gunnel and Colonel Amanda Silverlight

* * *

**A/N: Just a heads up, the next chapter is going to take a little while to get out as I have a lot going on in the story that I need to figure out.**

**Now for the two announcements:**

* * *

**Announcement 1: On my profile, there will be a poll asking which point of view that you want me to focus on for the next chapter:**

***Sarah and Blake - I would be picking up right where we left off in the bounty mission and will, among other things, explore what exactly happened regarding Sarah and Carrie, finish the mission in general, and advance on with the story.**

***Soap - I would be picking up where I left off with him in where ever the hell he is and will set up things to be explained later in the story. This would probably be the most confusing as I will be answering a lot of questions and be asking a lot of new ones.**

**.**

**The deadline for the pole will be Thursday, April 30th at midnight EST.**

* * *

**Announcement 2: For an up coming chapter that will be formatted Q and A style; I need questions to ask the cast so far. I will bar no questions but I will not be giving any major spoilers.**

**To submit questions for said chapter; leave a review on this chapter, or P.M. me, in this format:**

_**Dear **_**(insert Character name here)**

**(insert question here)**

_**From/signed...**_**(Your name or whatever you wish to be called)**

* * *

**And while I won't be barring any questions; I will only be answering questions for:**

**All of Team BNTY (Soap, Sarah, Sam, Drake, and Bucky); All of Team RWBY; All of Team DUSC; Morgoth; Ozpin and Doctor Oobleck; General Chris Gunnel and Colonel Amanda Silverlight; Sebastian and Violet Wong; Shadow; Carrie; John (Soap and Sarah's child from the future); and finally Summer Rose.**

**This is your chance to get some inside intel and/or clarification for their backstories, who they are interested in, and stuff like that.**


	33. Teaser

**A/N: Well. I feel bad that I haven't updated in a while, Soap's side of things is taking a little longer than originally expected. **

**So, as a sort of compensation, I thought that I would hold you over, and create a little bit of excitement with a teaser from Sarah and Blake's side of the upcoming events.  
**

**PLEASE NOTE: This teaser has several references to the Bible and Christianity; in fact, this fic was originally inspired by the book of Revelation in the Bible after I asked myself a question of _"What if?..."_ (that's a story for another time.) So, with that said, please know that while I, myself, am a Christian; that does not mean that I will try to force my religion on you. Your life, what you do with it and what you believe is your decision. Not mine. So please - for the sake of the story, entertainment, and my sanity as well as your own - just think of any references that I make as something that I made up.**

**PLEASE NOTE 2: Any and all contents that are included in this teaser, and anything posted after Ch. 18 really, are subject to change as nothing is set in stone.**

**Also; DISCLAIMER: I do not own RWBY. There is/was a reason why I never really bothered to describe what any of the canon characters looked like and that is that if you are reading this, then you have an interest in RWBY likely from either, watching one/some of the trailers or watching the actual show which also means that you should know that I didn't make it. It was made by and belongs to: Rooster Teeth and the, now late and great Monty Oum. (No disrespect is meant by that statement to anyone.)**

* * *

Sarah and I looked at each other and subconsciously spoke to each other, _"We should follow them and make sure that they don't kill each other."_ She said to me, moving towards the door.

I followed close behind.

**...This is only a teaser; you'll get the rest when the actual chapter comes out...**

* * *

We managed to slip into the sanctuary and get behind one of the pews near Soap and Niri without them noticing.

"Alright Niri, you managed to get me alone. What did you want to ask me?" Soap asked politely.

Niri was sitting down, in a pew, a small distance away from Soap, staring at the ground. When she spoke, she spoke quietly, but possessed a lot of intensity in her voice, "Have you ever heard of a city named 'Cado Angelus'?" She asked.

Soap's face looked worried for a split-second, but quickly replaced it with a neutral expression, "I have. Though if I remember correctly, some sort of tragedy hit it 12 years ago and effectively wiped it off the map."

I reached out to Sarah beside me,_ "What does Cado Angelus mean?" _I asked.

_"It means Fallen Angel." _Sarah explained. _"Now be quiet and watch and listen, you just might get some answers to your questions."_

I nodded and turned my attention back to the center of the room.

"Why?" Soap asked Niri.

"They say that the person that killed the city had the appearance of a demon; something I can attest to personally. But what I want to know is this: 12 years ago, did you kill my family along with the rest of Cado Angelus?"

"No." Soap stated simply, looking away.

"LIAR!" She yelled at him; her semblance amplifying the percussive force tenfold.

This was very painful to me and Sarah, both of us being faunas. We clutched at the sides of our heads. When we both finally recovered, it was rather apparent that we missed some dialog.

"...me." Soap said, sounding a little annoyed.

Niri reached back behind her and pulled out her lute turned sword and pointed it him.

Soap still just stood there calmly, waiting for her to move.

"I will fucking kill you!" She said as she approached him menacingly.

"Why?" Soap asked simply.

Niri stopped in her tracks and stared angrily at him.

_"I would suggest covering your ears. Niri is about to flare her semblance again."_ Sarah said to me as she covered her ears.

I quickly followed suit.

"WHY!? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS!?" She screamed at him, amplifying the force of her yell with her semblance. A visible shock wave could be seen moving across the ground from the shear force of her yell.

Soap was still standing calmly across from her.

"Why?" Soap asked again.

He received no answer. Instead, she pointed her sword at him and began to charge.

"AHH!" She yelled as she rushed him, sword ready to strike him.

When she reached him, she swung.

The blade connected and sent Soap staggering backwards.

When I saw this, I tensed and started to reach for my own weapon but was stopped by Sarah. _"Wait and watch." _She commanded in my mind.

Begrudgingly, I withdrew my hand from my weapon.

After he regained his balance, he faced her and stared at her, emotionless.

"Why? Because you slaughtered my family and friends!" She yelled at him.

She rushed him and was on top of him in an instant.

She knocked him to the ground and stood over him menacingly with her sword against his neck, ready to kill him.

I yelled at Sarah in my mind, _"Shouldn't we do something?!"_

_"No. This is their fight, not ours." _She replied._ "Just watch, you'll understand."_

I turned back to the fight and watched.

"Well Soap, or should I say Chris Gunnel? Just how do you think that you'll manage to convince me that you didn't want to kill them?" She said expectantly.

"Do you REALLY think that I wanted to kill them?" He said louder and rather angrily; his semblance flaring.

He managed to push her off of him.

She backed up, unsure about his question or what was happening, "…uhh..."

Just then, he threw something at her.

She ducked as the object neared her and lodged itself in the wall behind her.

She turned around. Above her, stuck in the wall about five feet above where her head was when she was standing, was a knife.

The knife itself was very ornate and decorated with swirling and skull designs; it almost looked as if the blade was forged from...darkness.

_"He wasn't trying to hit her."_ I heard Sarah's voice say in my head.

_"Wha-? Then what the hell was he doing?"_ I responded back.

_"You'll see."_

When Niri's eyes met the blade, they widened in fear.

"That blade is the same one that was used to kill your family and friends." Soap said, anger thick in his voice.

Slowly Niri turned around, weapon drawn and ready to fight for her life. I think she was surprised at what she found.

Soap was sitting down, chuckling slightly, "You know, it's funny. People that learn of our pasts, Sarah and I; they think that Sarah's the monster."

"…" Niri didn't move.

"But in reality, I'm the real monster. I've killed hundreds of people and I've watched more than that die. Hell, I wiped an entire city off the map except for you and four others." He activated his semblance and burnt off his gloves.

Niri still didn't move, her eyes were fixed on Soap; specifically his hands.

He held up his hands for her to see. Even from here, I could see the mangled flesh of his hands as they met the artificial light of the bulbs in the ceiling.

Niri observed them with caution and wonder.

"Why do you think that I avoid using my weapon when I can, huh? That thing that controlled me, that demon; it gave me immense power. Even after Summer rescued me from it's clutches, I could still feel it's power inside me and I feel it every time I reach for my weapons. Each time I draw them, I'm afraid that I'll lose control and I'll hurt the ones I care for."

Niri still just stood there.

"Life is precious. You know that right? You've only got one shot, one opportunity to make sure that the legacy you leave behind, is the one that you want people to know. I didn't want this. I didn't want any of this; but it wanted me."

He chuckled softly again and turned his attention to the cross that hung above the stage, "You know, the way of life I behind had a saying. It went something like this: 'And thus I lower myself to lowest that I can possibly go so that I might ensure that none experience what I have. The lower I go, the harder my life will become. But when I'm stranded in the deepest valley and I've gone the lowest I can, the only direction I can go is up; all I have to do, is keep moving forward. If I somehow manage to get ahead of you along the way, you keep moving too; I'll meet you there."

"Even after that speech, do you really think that I'm just going to let you go? I've been hunting you for the past 12 years."

"You're not the first; so have many others." He replied.

"You've committed hundreds, if not thousands, more crimes and you still slept soundly; I'm not just going to let you walk. You have to pay for you're sins you know." Niri asked him.

His face hardened and he looked Niri straight in the eyes.

She looked away uncomfortably and backed up further; her face still showing anger.

"What makes you think I haven't, huh? Every single night when I lay my head down beside Sarah's, I see the face of every person that I've killed, innocent or no."

Niri's face changed from one of anger to one of confusion. "I...uhh..."

I could hear Soap's voice waver as he started to tear up, "If you think for even a moment that I've slept soundly over the past 12 years; you'd be wrong. I've paid for my sins, a hundredfold; every single day I get up and shoulder the guilt of the countless kills in my name." Soap said, outright crying now. "I remember every single one of their names, their families, their jobs, everything. Every single time I told myself that it was their time and another paycheck that would ultimately help me survive. People say it gets easier as time goes on; well it doesn't." He took a breath. "And you know what? I regret almost every single one of them."

"Almost?" Niri said, tensing up at the word. "Which don't you regret?"

"My very first. The ones that I made in the name of survival after witnessing my family get executed in front of me."

"..."

"Look, I'm sorry. I know that you came here for Sarah. If you can't forgive me, then at least remember why you showed up." He stood and turned toward the pew that Sarah and I were hiding behind. "Blake, Sarah. I know you're there; come on out and go. Goodnight." He said.

"Where are you going?" I asked quickly.

He said nothing.

Still in tears, he teleported away to an unknown location.

Niri turned and looked at Sarah. "Sarah. I..."

"No. You've done enough tonight. Go. We'll talk about this later; right now I've got a fiancé to calm down."

* * *

**A/N: A lengthy teaser for sure. I hope you enjoyed. **


	34. Ch 29: if we do not

**A/N: Well, currently it's 4-28-15, two days into the poll; and so far Soap is winning, and I am currently very bored.**

**imma start writing.**

**On another note:**

**OVER 2K VIEWS!**

* * *

**Edit; 5-1-15: The poll has closed and the results are in.**

**The winner is...**

**Soap!**

**Thnkx to the three people that voted and I hope you all enjoy your choice for more confusion.**

**Story Time!**

* * *

Chapter 29: if we do not

* * *

**~Soap**

A second, or at least what felt like a second, after the world faded back to black, I found myself returning to the world of the living...

Or so I thought.

As I began to come to, I opened my eyes.

Doing so revealed Sarah and Blake carrying me out of the White Fang base with all of SLVR, BNTY, and RWBY leading the way; presumably heading towards Bucky and the Bullhead.

I looked to see who was carrying me. Sarah, walking backwards, was holding my legs and Blake had her arms wrapped around my shoulders and, judging by the way that her muscles were both relaxed and tense at the same time along with the way that she was confidently gripping me; she was both happy and concerned with the events that were currently transpiring.

I knew that Blake had taken a liking to me, courtesy of Bucky and his ability to be able to read the emotions of others like a book - not his semblance but rather just a trick he somehow picked up during the 11 years that he disappeared from the face of the planet; something that I found that he doesn't want to talk about. But I still didn't know what I wanted to do about it. Honestly, I wanted to see how the events of the next few days played out with her before I did anything; then again I guess Sarah and her could...No.

That's not a possibility, or was it? Oh well, decisions to be made later.

Still not yet able to move anything other than my eyes, I did a quick once over to everybody that I was able to see. As far as I could tell, everybody walked away from the mission relatively unscathed.

Weiss had a limp in her left leg; Drake looked like he broke his right prosthetic hand, again; Yang looked like she broke her actual left hand; Sam looked like she broke her foot; Sebastian reopened a few old scars; and it looked like Larry broke a few ribs, judging by the way he was holding his side and the pained expression on his face, and the bayonet on his M1 carbine.

Nothing that I didn't expect, if anything we pulled away a little better than I originally thought.

All were injuries that could be fixed, or healed, and recovered from quickly.

As far as Larry's weapon went, now he would be able to make the bayonet stronger; something that I sense that Sam and I would more than likely have a part of.

My eyes wandered over to Sarah.

Or next to her, rather.

Next to Sarah was a girl with a lute across her back and a sight for sore eyes.

She was about 5'6", looked to be about 18 years of age, human, and had long, silky, brown hair that reached her mid back. She was actually pretty attractive, just don't let Sarah know. She had an hourglass figure, a damn nice set of hips, a sexy as hell ass, and a good looking pair of legs. I couldn't see the front of her, but hot damn, I wanted to.

She was wearing a blue shirt, purple pants, an anklet on her left side, and white shoes.

I honestly had no idea who she was. SLVR was an all male team, so it couldn't have been one of them. Not even Ivory looked that good dressed as a girl, plus I had already seen him walking next to Victor.

I opened my mouth to speak but felt my consciousness start to drift as soon as I tried.

"Fuck! Here we go again." I managed to mumble as the world began to fade again.

Instantly, I felt my legs hit the floors and I heard a voice scream, "Chris!"

I had to assume that it was either Blake or Sarah as they were the only two that knew my name. _Great, now Yang will remember my name from before._ I silently thought to myself.

I tried to respond but my voice wasn't working and my mouth wasn't moving. As something of a last ditch attempt to try and communicate before I collapsed, I pushed as much of what I had seen as I could to Sarah hoping that she would be able to piece together what I was experiencing.

I finished pushing what I could to Sarah just as I saw another white flash and the world went black.

* * *

When I was able to see again, I found that I was in another frozen, black and white version of the world with _Private_ Gunnel and his Sergent Major Hayes.

I looked around and found that I was right where I left off when I left this...this...whatever the hell this was. Sergent Major Hayes about to shoot his bow at an unknown enemy approaching him from behind and Gunnel **(I'm just going to call this version of the General "Gunnel" and the version that Soap can talk to "the General" or "General Gunnel" for distinguishablity (I had to make a new word for that) sake.)** against the remains of a wall, holding his side in pain, watching a Beowolf approach him.

But something was different this time.

In this black and white version of time, there was another person of color there with me. It was the ghost of the General, the General I knew, standing next to me.

**(I'm not being racist or saying that Soap or the General are black. I'm saying that they are literally colorful in a world that's currently frozen in the colors: black and white.)**

"Where the hell am I?" I asked him.

"You're reliving my life, as I said you would." He replied.

"You said that to me over a month ago. That was a bit delayed, don't you think?"

"It was, but I wouldn't complain if I were you."

"And why's that?"

"Because if I hadn't chosen the timing that I did, you, and the rest of your friends, would be slaves to Carrie and he whom she served."

"You saying that tells me that while that was Carrie that we saw, that wasn't Carrie." I said.

"Since I still have my ability to see a little into the future, I know what you're going to say, but I want to hear and see the moment you understand yourself. Go on."

"Nobody should be able to look like that and still live which means that someone or something was possessing Carrie. When she spoke, she sounded like a teenage girl, a corpse, and a monster all at once. This leads me to think that Carrie never wanted to betray Sarah or kill her friends, she was forced to. What, or who, ever was controlling her, was keeping her soul as a prisoner within her own body; likely being tortured all the while. She was able to see anything and everything that she was being forced to do."

"How do you know this?" The General asked, knowing very well what the answer was.

"I had a similar experience when that...thing tried to posses me when I was 6. She was being controlled by the same power that tried to control me."

"You got that right on the nose." The General said, complementing me.

"Just what the hell are we going up against here?"

"You just answered your own question, in your question. I'm afraid I must go, enjoy what are able to see of my life today."

"What I'm able to see? I won't be able to see the whole thing?" I asked, not sure what he was trying to tell me.

"I lived for at least 10 generations; you probably won't get to see much. By the time that anything starts to pick up, Sarah will have forced her way into your mind and woken you up." He said as he started to disappear.

"Wait!" I yelled. "Once I am woken up, how do I return?" I asked quickly.

The apparition smiled as he responded, "By returning to the one place in your memory that you dread the most; Valhalla."

* * *

The world around me snapped into color and set back into motion.

I looked around from my spectral observation platform.

Hayes successfully killed his unknown attacker, now known to be a Death Stalker. _'Damn! __That's no easy feat.' _I thought to myself.

I turned my attention back to Gunnel. The Beowolf that was approaching him reached pouncing range and attacked.

Gunnel watched until the creature was almost right on top of him. Once the Grimm was within range, he threw his fist at the creature.

The Grimm froze in midair above Gunnel and, after a second, went limp and fell to the side of him.

He pulled his fist away from the dissolving corpse. Once his hand was clear, I saw the reason for the sudden death of the Beowolf; Gunnel had, one on each wrist, two gauntlets that resembled Yang's, however, there were quite a few differences between Yang's and Gunnel's.

Gunnel's gauntlets had, instead of a built-in firearm, what looked to be multiple sword and/or knife/dagger blades in various places on each. It had, what looked to be, a knife blade positioned on the underside ready to pop out upon the bending back of his wrist. Positioned almost immediately next to the knife blade was another except this one was facing the opposite direction, cutting edge and point facing his upper arm, and looked to be larger than the knife blade; almost as big as a short sword, or maybe a dagger, blade. When I looked closer, I saw that even this blade was facing the opposite direction that the knife blade was, it had the same mechanism as the knife which told me that it ejected the same direction as the smaller blade. The only use that I could think of for those would be that they were meant to be removed from the mechanism all together and used as an actual sword. Finally on top of the gauntlet was a third, even larger, collapsible blade; by the looks of it, this one was also spring loaded. It was also the same blade that he used to kill the Beowolf.

**(Imagine a cross between Yang's shotgun gauntlets (minus the shotgun part) and the Assassin's Creed 2 Hidden Blades with an extra blade positioned on the top of it.)**

The man that I now knew as Sergent Major Hayes, approached Gunnel cautiously.

"Think that's the last of them?" Gunnel asked as attempted to stand.

"There are always more; but if you're asking about right now. Yes, I think that's the last of them." Hayes replied as he helped Gunnel up.

Once he was standing, Hayes gave his wounds a quick once over and laughed. "How the hell did you survive Corporal?" He asked as Gunnel slung one of his arms over Hayes's shoulders and they began to walk out the destroyed village and out of my view.

"Corporal, sir? I'm only a private." Gunnel replied respectfully.

"Not after that display of skill in combat. That and the fact that you and I are the only two left from the company after an attack like that means that we're probably going to be getting decorated and promotions for that alone." Hayes responded.

"Speaking of the attack; who, or what really, do you think got the jump on us Sergent Major?" Gunnel asked before they faded from my vision.

Hayes sighed, "An old friend of mine; actually, you could say that we used to be brothers. He went by the name 'Rubrum' when we were 'friends'."

"I'm not sure I follow sir."

"Most people in this world are born. Myself and 19 others, Rubrum included, were created. We are the result of a secret government project codenamed: Sons Of Promethus. I was number 19, He was number 20. The other 18 were considered successful, but him and I were 'special'. Both of us were born without souls, however, once the personality programming in our DNA took hold, we created our own. Or at least I did." Hayes said somewhat remorsefully.

"What happened sir?"

"I was able to take the impression that the personality programming left and generate a soul with it. So was Rubrum, or so we thought. Right at the moment that his soul would have been created and take hold, Lucifer took hold instead." Hayes said with a voice that sounded neutral, but I could tell that he was bitter.

"Lucifer sir? You mean the angel that betrayed God?" Gunnel asked.

As soon as soon as I heard Gunnel say this, I tensed. Ever since Summer rescued me from the hell I experienced; I put most everything that I had ever believed in, behind me. Believing in him and what his grace and mercy could do, made me a target. It made me a "monster" and a "demon".

I didn't want to live a life that left me to be remembered like that; so I left it.

"That would be correct. Lucifer took possession of Rubrum's soul and twisted it to his own corrupt desires. In time, Rubrum became the leading scientist on Grimm and how they creation came to be; 'offically'. What he was really doing was finding a way for him to fuse Grimm blood with his own faunas blood. I think it's needless to say now that he did. Doing so allowed the full extent of Lucifer's power to take hold. Rubrum became Lucifer." He took a deep breath, "I was in the room when it happened. Once the demon took hold, he attacked me and he could have killed me. Instead, he told me something; he told me, _"You will be my messenger for the one who might really oppose me. He will be powerless against me. In the place of _your_ short lifespan, he will be sentenced to live till he might find a way for my complete banishment to whence I came. Or till none of humanity, human or faunas, are left upon the scarred remains of this world. He will witness the destruction of the very family that he will create. Angel of Death, Guardian of Light, Hell Spite, Demon; You shall witness my splendor through the destruction of your world."_

* * *

Out of nowhere, I felt a surge of information enter my head.

It was the profile of, who I now knew to be, Sergent Major Stevens Hayes; or at least part of it. It seemed to me that information was missing.

Hayes was 18 years old, human, 5'10", had short, messy, black hair that looked like it originated from a military buzz cut, and nearly pitch black eyes. For his size, he was very strong and definitely looked it. He, as he approached Gunnel earlier to help him up, was wearing a silver and blue suit of armor with the logo of the Vale Military and Armed Forces stamped into the right shoulder and his rank of Sergent Major stamped into the left.

As quickly as it came, it left just as quickly; taking the color and memory with it.

* * *

I was alone, standing in the dark. Nothing that I hadn't experienced before, but this time it felt heavier. Almost as if someone was trying...to force their way into my mind. Just as the General said would happen.

Slowly, the darkness around me started to lift.

The black of the dark started to turn a shade of red and, eventually, light pink. It was the part of me that was Sarah trying to get through to me to wake me.

As I waited for her to rescue me from the darkness of my mine, I thought I saw a third color underlying the red and pink that dominated my vision.

Purple, or violet really.

_Why am I hallucinating as I'm leaving my own mind?_

While I did think that I was imagining things, It did occur to me that this combination of colors would make for a very beautiful color pallet if it was applied to the sky at sunset or sunrise.

_"Chris!" _I heard a voice say all around me in my mind.

"Sarah! I'm here!" I yelled back, unsure if she heard me.

I felt her consciousness reach out to me her's. As soon as it was close enough, I grabbed on.

As soon as I grabbed hold, the darkness of my mind left my vision.

* * *

I opened my eyes to look around. Instantly I closed them and grimaced from the shock that the light gave me. _Damn! You'd think that after teleporting so much and seeing things even brighter than this that I would be able to handle this level of light just fine._

"Soap! You're up!" I heard a voice that sounded like Blake's say. Though I honestly couldn't tell at the moment; the light was too blinding to see and my mind was too fogged to be able to remember what Blake's voice sound like.

"Yep." I responded. "Though I'm not happy about it."

"Don't go anywhere, I'll go get the others."

_'__Fuck! That's not very reassuring!'_ I thought to myself. _'Why the hell wouldn't they be near me, waiting for me to wake up, unless something bad happened or I was out for a while. This doesn't bode well.'_

"Guys, he's awake!" I heard the feminine voice say as it entered a doorway and disappeared down a hall. "Guys!"

* * *

**A/N: Damn that took way too long to write! Then again, I am essentially creating the following major events (don't worry, since everything I am about to say has already been mentioned in the story at some point in time; no spoilers will be mentioned here) : a war that lasted 1,000 years, the life of a man who lived for 10 generations, the downfall and destruction of two kingdoms not from the show (I haven't decided on the names yet), the abandonment of music, and an enemy worthy of both, the beginning of the story and General Gunnel's OPness.**

**Also, I did say that if Soap's perspective won that there would only be more questions than answers. I hope you got what you wanted.**

**Until next time,**

**I'm SoapiestAuto780 and I'm out.**

**See ya guys.**


	35. Ch 30: put love for

**MORE CONFUSION!**

* * *

Chapter 30: put love for

* * *

"That might be a good place to stop for now." I said as looked up at the sky and noticed how the darkness of the eastern horizon started to grow lighter. "It's almost sunrise."

I stood up and offered a hand to first Sarah then Blake.

Once we we're all standing, I spoke, "Hey Blake?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you ever find what you were looking for?"

"Chris..." She sighed, "so many things have happened..."

"Then you know exactly where I stand. As long as yo-"

"As long as I continue to run, you cannot, and will not, help me. I know Soap. Believe me, I know." She said as she turned to leave.

"What about Athens?" I asked, stopping her.

"What about him?"

"Has he found what he was looking for?"

"I don't-"

"The answer Soap, is no." I turned to find the man in question walking towards us. He was wearing a white coat over top a white shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of brown shoes. "You know very well what I am looking for. He's still out there and I'm determined to find him and finish this. Maybe then we can get some peace." He said.

"Then you know where I stand." I said.

"I do."

"I wish you the best of luck then, Athens. You too Blake." I said.

Both of them nodded and left.

As I watched their figures grow small as they walked into the distance, I thought aloud, "You two are going to need it."

I turned my attention back to Sarah, "You know, I never one hundred percent found out what happened while I out during that bounty mission. Would you mind filling in some blanks?"

Sarah smiled and nodded.

She took my hand and led me to the sanctuary. We reached the stage and sat down on the steps.

Once we were sitting, she gave me a kiss and then began recounting her side of the story.

"After you blacked out, the White Fang base was in complete choas..."

* * *

**~Athens**

We didn't walk far from the church to reach my car.

Blake hopped in the passenger seat and I got in the driver's seat.

"Where does yours start?" Blake asked me as I put the car in drive.

"Excuse me?" I asked, not taking my eyes of the corpse littered road.

"Your story. You know better than anyone, all stories have a beginning and an end. You know Soap's, Sarah's, and mine; but we don't know yours. So Athens, where did your journey into this hell we call home begin?"

I sighed, "A few years after my mom died...

* * *

_Meet me at the Drunken Sailor bar and sit down at the bar. When the bartender asks what he can get you, respond with the phrase: 'silence and peace.' The bartender will nod and __go into the back; wait for 5 minutes. After that, follow him. Keep going till you come the first door on the left. Enter and take a seat; we'll talk shortly after._

_~Anonymous_

I reread the note 5 more times to make sure I didn't miss anything.

This note was in my pocket after I had finished getting information my boss needed. Again.

I was sitting on a bench outside the 'drunken sailor' trying to decide weather or not to go in and meet the person who gave me the note.

After a lenghty debate in my mind, I sighed and decided to go in.

I memorized any and all possible escape routes should the need arise.

For trust purposes, I had left my weapon with my dad, though I made that I didn't tell him why. I did keep my knife though, and it was thankfully hidden.

As I walked, in my nose was assaulted by the smell of alcohol and people who haven't bathed in days. Among other things, I could sense a lot emotion coming from the people around me.

Sadness, anger, self pity, remorse. Each one I knew well.

The drunken sailor was an older bar, founded about 300 or so years ago; at the time, it was considered a marvel of engineering and architecture. But now it was nothing more than just another old building.

Before I sat down, I silently went over all of my precautions to conceal my identity. I was wearing amber contacts, a large brown coat, grey shirt, glasses, brown pants, some old shoes, and a small gold ring. Everything was in order.

I sat down at the bar.

After a minute, the bartender wandered over to me.

"What can I get ya?" The bartender asked.

"Silence and peace." I say.

He said nothing and nodded at my request. After giving another patron another round; he headed into the back.

As I waited for when I was supposed to walk in the back, my mind wandered.

Unfortunately it wandered to when I was a child. To before _She_ died.

* * *

_"Come on dad, please." I said in my childish voice._

_"No Athens. You've already had enough sugar. If I buy you anymore ice cream and your mom finds out, she'll kill me." He said._

_I said nothing but decided to pull the one thing that made almost all parents break:_

_The puppy dog eyes._

_"Sorry Athens. I'm afraid that's not going to work on me." He said, determined to outlast my efforts._

_Instead of giving up, I added some fake tears._

_"N-no that's not going to work this time." He said, his resistance wavering._

_I decided to pull out all the stops; I added a sad whimper._

_"ALRIGHT, fine. I'll buy you some more, just please stop that." He said; his facial expression begging me to stop the torturous look._

_"Yay, thanks dad." I said._

_He just sighed, "Yeah, yeah. Which one do you want?" He asked, defeated._

_"Oh, I want vanilla, and chocolate, and strawberry, and neo-"_

* * *

**1 hour later**

_"You bought him more ice cream, didn't you." My mom said, glaring at my dad._

_My dad flinched under her intense glare, "Now honey, please. He used the puppy dog eyes on me. You know I can't say no to him when he does that." He said frightened._

_"That doesn't excuse the fact that you some how destroyed 2 police cars, hospitalized 4 cops, completely vandalized 5 stores, and got chased down the highway by police and the 5:00 news."_

_"Now that, I have no explanation for. Honestly though, I have no idea how any of that happened either." He said trying to reason with her._

_She just sighed and shook her head._

_She was about to say something but was interrupted by another officer "Hey, the chief wants to talk to you two." He said as he pointed to the police chiefs door._

_They both nodded and walked over to the room._

_When they entered, they saw me sitting in a chair with a sad expression plastered on my face, and the police chief staring intently at them._

_"You 2 can never make my job easy, can you?" He said, sighing_

_"Chief, I'm so sorry for the actions of my husband and son; as soon as we get home, we are going to have a very long talk." She said staring at me and dad._

_"Look, just take them home and make sure that this never happens again detective." He said, looking at my mom._

_"Yes sir." She turned her attention to us, "Let's go you two." She said as she walked us out of the police station._

_The ride home was silent. Nobody said a word until we got home. "Why can't you two make my life any easier, for just one day?" Mom asked._

_"Look honey, we're sorry. I promise that this will never happen again." Dad said, holding mom's hands and looking into her eyes._

_"Yeah mom, I promise that I will never do anything like that again." I said, not knowing that I would be breaking that promise in a few years later._

_"Good. Now how about I make us some dinner?" She asked._

_Just as we were about to reply, the door bell rang._

_"Oh. I'll get it." She said. She turned to me, "Athens, can you start setting the table please?" She asked._

_"Sure mom." I said, getting up from my seat._

_My mom opened the door and was greeted by a delivery man holding a package and a clip board._

_"Oh, I was wondering when the package would get here." Mom said._

_"Yeah, ma'am. I'm going to need you to sign this. Your husband too." The man said._

_"Oh alright. Honey can you come here for a moment." She said into the hallway._

_"Alright what is it?" Dad asked._

_"We just need to sign for this package."_

_"Alright, well let me see it." Dad said._

_Mom handed him the clipboard signed it. When he finished, he handed it back to her so she could sign it._

_"If I may ask, what are you names?" The delivery man asked looking at the signatures._

_"Sure, I don't see why not. I'm Mary and this is my husband, Roman Torchwick" Mom said._

* * *

My watch beeping, signaling that the 5 minutes were up, brought me back to reality.

Instantly I noticed that my cheeks were wet. I quickly wiped my tears and stood up from my seat and started walking to the back.

As I passed through the doorway, I berated myself for thinking about the past.

_'It never gets any easier, does it Athens?' _I thought to myself as I turned the knob on the door.

* * *

****A/N: He he he. I think I've gotten good at raising more questions than answers.****

****I want to thank werewolf35 for writing the entirety of the last four scenes. ****


	36. Ch 31: others above all

****A/N: I apologize for the long delay between this chapter and the last; I blame life, school finals, and the fact that I am no longer single for my absence.  
****

****That aside, MORE CONFUSION...****

* * *

Chapter 31: others above all

* * *

_I turned my attention back to Sarah, "You know, I never one hundred percent found out what happened while I out during that bounty mission. Would you mind filling in some blanks?"_

_Sarah smiled and nodded._

_She took my hand and led me to the sanctuary. We reached the stage and sat down on the steps._

_Once we were sitting, she gave me a kiss and then began recounting her side of the story._

_"After you blacked out, the White Fang base was in complete chaos..."_

* * *

**~Sarah**

I looked up from the dissolving corpse that was Carrie and to the chaos that had consumed the base.

Yang was successfully fending off the mercenaries surrounding her, Weiss and Blake were licking their wounds behind the stage, and Larry looked to be having fun fighting the White Fang.

I honestly wasn't sure how much I liked the last of those, but shrugged it off and focused my attention back to the situation at hand.

I proceeded to try and stand from my position, however doing so only led to more exhaustion.

I tensed as I felt a presence approach me from behind.

"I'm not sure if I would call this a winning battle." I heard Blake's voice.

I laughed at that, "Oh we're winning alright." I replied.

Blake knelt down beside me and helped me up. "You call this" she gestured with her free hand, "winning?" She asked.

"No." Just then, I caught a glimpse of an old friend sneaking her way through the shadows towards us.

I smiled when I saw her. "Now I do." I said.

"Wha-"

Just then, a screech could be heard, instantly dropping the Mercs and White Fang soldiers to the ground. Each was gripping their head in pain. "Just when I was beginning to think that the White Fang had a chance." She said disapprovingly.

"Long time no see Niri." I said, catching her attention.

"How you doing Sarah?" She asked lightheartedly, as she struck down a merc trying to approach her from behind.

"Not too bad. Just getting overwhelmed by the White Fang; nothing too unusual." I replied.

"I never thought I would see the day when you would need my help."

"Hey. I sent you that message as a precautionary measure. I honestly didn't think that you would show up before we finished."

"Well, then I don't think you'll mind me finishing the fight quickly, will you?"

"Have at it. Just let me cover my ears." I turned to Blake, "Blake, cover your ears. Now!"

She did, and just in time too.

The blast from Niri's yell killed whatever White Fang and Mercs were in it's path.

In my head I heard Blake's voice, _"What the hell was that?"_

_"Hi Blake." _I replied to the voice nonchalantly.

Blake nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard my voice in her head. _"Wha-? How? When did?"_

_"It seems that Soap and I subconsciously aura bonded with you before the mission. If I had to guess how, it would be that the three of us having grown so close to each other over the past month allowed a subconscious bond of trust to form; effectively forming an aura bond. But more about this later, call the others via scroll and tell them that all hostiles have been eliminated and to meet at the front gates in ten minutes. Then help me with Chris."_

_"Ok."_

* * *

"What happened to Violet and her lover?" Sebastian asked.

"They ran off when I scared them." I replied as I held Chris's legs, walking backwards towards the Bullhead. Blake was holding the other half of him as we brought up the rear of the group. "We'll get them next time."

"Bu-" I heard Sebastian start to say. "Fine."

We walked in silence for a few minutes before I heard Chris mumble, "Fuck! Here we go again."

Instantly, I dropped his legs as I called out his name, "Chris!"

Within an instant, I fell to my knees as a surge of memories enter my head. Just as I was start to make sense of what I was seeing, the images stopped as quickly as they came.

"Chris?" I heard Yang ask behind me.

"Now's not the time Yang. Ask Soap about it when wakes up; right now we need to get him back to the church." I heard Blake say as I picked up his legs and started toward the Bullhead faster than before.

* * *

**Back at the church... (four hours later)**

Just as I felt my mind enter Chris's, I could hear Blake yelling down the hall, saying that he was awake.

I didn't waste anytime getting to his side.

* * *

After we managed to get rid of the others that had come to check on him, we talked for half an hour about what he had seen while he was out before Blake joined us.

_"Should we tell him now?" _I heard Blake's voice ask inside my head.

_"Not yet, let's let him rest for a little before we shock him with that little piece of information."_

_"OK."_

Just then, Niri entered the room with a neutral look plastered on her face. "Soap?" She asked politely.

"Yes? Who are you?" He asked.

"My name is Niri Nightingale and I was wondering if there was somewhere I could ask you a few questions?"

"Well, I'm right here. Ask away." Chris responded.

"Alone I might add."

He looked at me before looking back to Niri and shrugging, "I don't see why not." He said standing up, moving towards the door. "Here, follow me. We can talk in the sanctuary."

* * *

**~Blake**

Sarah and I looked at each other after witnessing the conversation that had just unfolded.

Silently we reached out to each other _"We should follow them and make sure that they don't kill each other."_ She said, moving towards the door.

I followed close behind.

_"Why would they want to kill each other?" _I thought back, slightly surprised at the suggestion of hostility between Soap and Niri.

_"Remember how Chris said that he wiped out an entire city, except for five?"_

_"Yeah. But what does tha...Ohhh."_ I responded; connecting the dots.

I stopped walking; Sarah stopped as well and turned to face me.

_"Yeah. Of the five that he missed, Niri is one of them. When I told her about Chris and my engagement, she asked if she could come and stay with us while she looked for the person responsible for the destruction of her home. At the time, I didn't realize that she was talking about Chris."_ She explained quickly.

_"When did you realize it?" _I asked.

_"Less than a minute ago."_

_"So you're concerned about Soap getting hurt?"_ I asked. I still wasn't comfortable addressing him by his actual name yet.

_"I'm more concerned about Niri getting hurt than Chris, but what I'm really concerned about is him losing control."_ She said.

_"Ok." _I responded without question. After a second, it finally it clicked,_ "Wait! What do you mean?"_ I questioned, giving her a look.

_"Chris and I both have a red and black stripe in our hair; do you know why?"_ She asked.

_"Since you asked the question, I take it that it's more than just a simple fashion statement." _I responded.

She shook her head. _"When Chris and I first met each other, I only had a solitary red streak in my otherwise blond hair and he only had a single black streak in his pure white hair. The day after I unlocked his aura and bonded with him, we woke up with a second streak in our hair. We came to learn later that our respective 'dyed' hair are actually remnants of the overflow of emotion or influence that we experienced when we were younger. Chris's is black from the influence of Darkness that he experienced, and mine is red from the overflow of hate and anger from mine. If, or in my case 'when', either of us start to experience or feel that way again, the respective streak will begin to dissipate in the other. It's like an early warning system. That's why Chris started to worry when Weiss told him that the red streak in his hair began to dissipate on the bounty mission."_

_"When was the last time Soap lost control?"_ I asked, not exactly sure I wanted to know the answer.

_"The last time he used his weapons, when we rescued Drake from the White Fang in Vacuo."_ She responded.

I was about to question what she meant when she cut me off, _"Ask Drake about it later; we need to get moving." _

She started in the direction of the sanctuary.

I followed close behind her, saying nothing more along the way.

* * *

We managed to slip into the sanctuary and get behind one of the pews near Soap and Niri without them noticing.

"Alright Niri, you managed to get me alone. What did you want to ask me?" Soap asked politely.

Niri was sitting down in a pew a small distance away from Soap, staring at the ground.

When she spoke, she spoke quietly, but her voice shook from the amount of shear intensity it possessed, "Have you ever heard of a city named 'Cado Angelus'?" She asked.

Soap's face looked worried for a split-second, but quickly replaced it with a neutral expression, "I have; though if I remember correctly, some sort of tragedy hit it 12 years ago and effectively wiped it off the map."

I reached out to Sarah beside me,_ "What does Cado Angelus mean?" _I asked.

_"It means Fallen Angel. In that book that Soap gave you, do you remember the story about the angel Lucifer and his betrayal to Yahweh?"_

_"Yeah. What about it?"_

_"Supposedly, when Yahweh cast him out of the heavens; he passed through the very place where that city sat on his way to the depths of Hell. Thus the name 'Fallen Angel' or Cado Angelus. The city was headed and led by people who worshiped the very things that were natural, sworn enemies to Iustorum, the name of the way of life that Soap left behind. Things that followed Lucifer's every command." _Sarah explained. _"Now be quiet and watch and listen, you just might get some answers to your questions."_

I nodded and turned my attention back to the center of the room.

"Why? What about it?" Soap asked Niri.

"They say that the person that killed the city had the appearance of a demon; something I can attest to personally. Among the criminal underworld, you're known as a 'demon'; but what I want to know is this: 12 years ago, did you kill my family along with the rest of Cado Angelus?"

"No." Soap stated simply, looking away.

"LIAR!" She yelled at him; her semblance amplifying the percussive force tenfold.

This was very painful to me and Sarah, both of us being faunas.

We clutched at the sides of our heads, trying to get the pain to stop.

When we both finally recovered, it was rather apparent that we missed some dialog.

"...me." Soap said, sounding a little annoyed.

Niri reached behind her and pulled out her lute turned sword and pointed it him.

Soap still just stood there calmly, waiting for her to move.

"I will fucking kill you!" She said as she approached him menacingly.

"Why?" Soap asked simply.

Niri stopped dead in her tracks and stared angrily at him.

_"I would suggest covering your ears. Niri is about to flare her semblance again."_ Sarah said to me as she covered her ears.

I quickly followed suit.

"WHY!? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS!?" She screamed at him, amplifying the force of her yell with her semblance. A visible shock wave could be seen moving across the ground from the shear force of her yell.

Soap was still standing calmly across from her, unmoved by the blast.

"Why?" Soap asked again.

He received no answer. Instead, she pointed her sword at him and began to charge.

"AHH!" She yelled as she rushed him, sword ready to strike him.

When she reached him, she swung.

The blade connected and sent Soap staggering backwards.

When I saw this, I tensed and started to reach for my own weapon but was stopped short by Sarah. _"Wait and watch." _She commanded in my mind.

Begrudgingly, I withdrew my hand from my weapon and turned my attention back to the events that were currently unfolding.

The hit hardly did any damage; if you could call making Soap lose his balance, damage.

After he regained his balance, he faced her and stared at her, emotionless.

"Why?! Because you slaughtered my family and friends!" She yelled at him.

She rushed him, appearing on top of him in an instant.

She knocked him to the ground and stood over him menacingly with her sword against his neck, ready to kill him.

I yelled at Sarah in my mind, _"Shouldn't we do something?!"_

_"No. This is their fight, not ours." _She replied.

_"Aren't you afraid that she's going to kill him?"_

_"Chris wouldn't let himself be killed like this. Just watch, you'll understand."_

I turned back to the fight and watched.

"Well Soap, or should I say Chris Gunnel? Just how do you think that you'll manage to convince me that you didn't want to kill them?" She said expectantly.

"do you honestly think that I wanted to kill them?" Soap said softly, as he closed his eyes to try and push away the tears.

"What?" Niri asked him, legitimately not hearing him.

"I said, Do you REALLY think that I wanted to kill them?" He said much louder and rather angrily; his semblance flaring.

He moved and managed to push her off of him.

He stood back up and faced her.

She backed up, unsure about his question or what was happening, "…uhh..."

Just then, he threw something at her.

The object in question moved too fast for me to see, but somehow Niri was able to see it; or at least well enough to be able to dodge it in time.

With a resounding _thunk_, the object lodged itself in the wall behind her.

Niri turned around to see what he had thrown at her.

In the wall behind her, about five feet above where her head was, lodged six inches deep, blade first, was a knife.

The knife itself was very decorated and ornate. With the light on it, it glistened and shimmered a very dark blue and black color.

For whatever reason, it reminded me of the beast that I saw in General Gunnel's final moments.

I pondered the cause of this for a moment before something clicked.

The reason why it looked so familiar was because the blade looked as if it was forged from pure darkness.

_"What the?" _I thought to myself

_"And so the infamous blade finally makes a reappearance." _I heard Sarah's voice say in my head.

My head snapped in her direction. _"You know what that is?"_

_"Yes, and now's not the time to explain."_

_"Why was he tr-" _I started to ask when her voice cut me off.

_"He wasn't trying to hit her if that's what you're going to ask."_ I heard Sarah's voice say in my head.

_"Wha-? Then what the hell was he doing?"_ I responded back.

_"You'll see."_

_"You know, I'm kinda getting tired of the bullsh-"_

_"I said you'll see."_ She responded in a commanding tone. _"In our lives - especially the hectic ones of Hunters; Bounty or not - the answers to our questions can sometimes be found in the stillness of the moment and the stillness of our hearts. If you be quiet and watch, you might answer some questions you've already asked and maybe even some that you don't know to, or haven't thought to, ask yet."_

Once again, I turned and watched.

When Niri's eyes met the blade, they widened in fear.

"That blade is the same one that I used to kill your family and friends." Soap said, anger thick in his voice.

Niri slowly turned around, ready to fight the man that destroyed her home to the death.

In a way, I could related to Niri.

Once upon a time, I too felt the need for revenge against those who had wronged me; something that I later found to be not worth the cost in blood, effort, time, and friendships. I personally knew the mental and emotional state that she was in. It was a dark and lonely place to which I never wanted to return. I hoped that she would realize this before she did something that she would regret.

Weapons at the ready, she faced Soap.

Had I been in her shoes, right then and there with the same mental and emotional state; I think I also would have been a little surprised at what I would have found.

Soap was sitting down, his silver-brown eyes slowly becoming sprinklers and chuckling softly, "You know, it's funny. People that learn of our pasts, Sarah and I; they think that Sarah's the monster with all that she's done."

"…" Niri didn't move.

"But in reality, I'm the real monster. I've killed hundreds of people and I've watched more than that die; hell, I wiped an entire city off the map except for you and four others." He said remorsefully; his voice dipping slightly.

He slowly raised his glove covered hands in the air. Once they were raised, he activated his semblance and burnt off his gloves.

Niri still didn't move, her eyes were fixed on Soap.

I was ready to jump in if I need be; but at this point, I didn't think I would have to.

Sarah's voice cut into the quiet of my mind, _"Blake, watch the blade."_

I quickly located the blade and watched.

The knife started to change; but not back to the darkness from whence it was forged.

At the end of the handle of the black blade, was a small orange flame; a fire that I recognized almost immediately as one of Soap's. The flame slowly started to engulf the handle but looked like it was have a little trouble; almost as if Soap was fighting with the darkness of the blade.

As I continued to watch it, the flame grew in size and intensity. The flame, now a raging fire, quickly engulfed the rest of the blade. The knife disappeared quickly after.

Watching Soap's semblance demolish the blade reminded me of something that I learned a long time ago, but had forgotten about it. _"The strength, ferocity, and intensity of your semblance and what it's based on, are determined by several things: the strength of your heart; the determination of your mind; and the essence and power of your soul."_

In other words, even though Soap had left his past behind; the darkness that had controlled him, stayed with him and had been battling with him since Summer rescued him. If it was anybody else, their hearts and souls would have been consumed by it a long time ago. That in and of itself spoke volumes about who he was and what made up his heart.

This thought in mind, I turned my attention back to Soap.

He turned his hands over in the air, as if he was looking over his own hands for the first time.

Even from here, I could see the mangled flesh of his hands as they turned and met the artificial light of the bulbs in the ceiling.

Niri observed them with caution and wonder.

"Why do you think that I avoid using my weapon when I can, huh? That thing that controlled me, that demon; it left me with immense power. Even after Summer rescued me from it's clutches, I could still feel it's power inside me and I feel it every time I reach for my weapons. Each time I draw them, I'm afraid that I'll lose control and I'll hurt the ones I care about. Sarah; Blake; Sam; Ruby; Drake; Weiss; Bucky; Yang; hell, even my own traitorous twin sister; all of them; they are the only people I have left in this world." Soap said, tears slowly starting to run down his cheeks.

Niri still just stood there.

"Life is precious. You know that right? You've only got one shot, one opportunity to make sure that the legacy you leave behind is the one that you want people to know you for." He took a deep breath, "I didn't want this. I didn't want an entire organization hunting me. I didn't want to murder an entire city. I didn't want any of this; but it wanted me." His voice cracked.

He chuckled softly again and turned his attention to the cross that hung above the stage, "You know, the way of life I behind had a saying. It went something like this: I lower myself to lowest that I can go, so that I might ensure that none have to experience what I have. But when you're stranded in the deepest valley, the only direction you can go is up; all you have to do is keep moving forward. If I somehow manage to get ahead of you along the way, you keep moving too; I'll meet you there."

"Even after that speech, do you really think that I'm just going to let you go? I've been hunting you for the past 12 years."

"So have many others." He replied; a little more together.

"You've committed hundreds, if not thousands, more crimes and you still slept soundly all the while; I'm not just going to let you walk. You have to pay for you're sins you know." Niri asked him.

Soap's face hardened as he looked her straight in the eyes.

She looked away uncomfortably and backed up further; her face still showing anger.

"What makes you think I've slept soundly, huh? Every single night when I lay my head down to rest beside Sarah's, I see the face of every person that I've killed, innocent or no."

Niri's face changed from one of anger to one of confusion. "I...uhh..."

I could hear Soap's voice waver as he started to tear up, "If you think for even a moment that I've slept soundly over the past 12 years; you'd be wrong. I've paid for my sins, a hundredfold; every single day I get up and shoulder the burden and guilt of the countless kills in my name." Soap said, outright crying now. "I remember every single one of their names, their families, their jobs, everything. Every single time I told myself that it was their time and just another paycheck. People say it gets easier as time goes on; well it doesn't." He took a deep breath. "And you know what? I regret almost every single one of them."

"Almost?" Niri said, tensing up at the word. "Which don't you regret?"

"My very first. The ones that I made in the name of survival after witnessing my family get executed before my very eyes."

"..."

"Look, I'm sorry. I know that you came here for Sarah. If you can't forgive me, then at least remember why you showed up." He stood and turned toward the pew that Sarah and I were hiding behind. "Blake, Sarah. I know you're there; come on out and go. Goodnight." He said.

"Where are you going?" I asked quickly.

He said nothing.

Still in tears, Soap teleported himself away to an unknown location.

We all stood there for a second, unsure what to do.

Niri finally turned and looked at us. "Sarah I-I..."

"No. You've done enough tonight. Go. We'll talk about this later; right now I've got a fiancée to calm down." She turned to me. "Blake. Let me talk to him before you join us. I'll let you know where he is; when I do, use my semblance to get there."

"You know where he is?" I asked.

"No, but I've got a pretty good idea." She said as she activated her semblance and disappeared from the room.

_'Well this ought to be interesting.' _I thought to myself once I was alone in the sanctuary.

* * *

****A/N: Long wait = longer chapter. I have to apologize for the last three (as of currently) O.C. submissions on the forum. I have not yet had the time to take a look at them and post what needs to be changed, if anything. ****

****Because I feel bad for how long I have made y'all wait for an update, from today (6-5-2015) through Sunday(6-7-2015) midnight EST, I am going to be giving all O.C.s submitted during that time-slot a (somewhat) major part of the plot. If your OC is to be included in this, please put a * at the end of their name.****

****Keep in mind that while I say this, I must request that their backstories have enough room for them all to meet and that they do not end up in Vale. I would prefer that they end up in Mistral or Vacuo. ****

****Only one spot remains for the people that will ultimately survive at the end of the story. One of the OC's that get submitted during this time might take up that slot.****

****We'll see.****

****Until next time,****

****Soap out****


	37. Preview: This is the end

**I have to apologize for my disappearance as of late, college is a full time job. **

**I cannot promise to release an actual chapter anytime soon, but until then, here's the end.**

**Enjoy**

* * *

My heart sank when Sarah and I were finally able to reach the crash site.

What wasn't burning a colorful blue-green flame, was twisted and mangled beyond all recognition.

If it wasn't for the fact that I witnessed the explosion of the aircraft, I might not have believed that it was mine.

To be honest, I hoped that what I had just seen was only my imagination or a nightmare; but alas, it was not so.

I drove our weaponized Mustang as far as I could into the debris-filled desert until it became too unsafe. Upon exiting the vehicle, Sarah and I slowly and quietly picked our way through the wreckage of my over-sized Bullhead towards the four occupants of the aircraft and the source of the explosion.

The four occupants, each dressed in their appropriate colors - Ruby in red, Weiss in white, Blake in black, and Yang in yellow - laid amongst the debris.

Yang and Weiss both had debris sticking out of them. Ruby was missing her lower torso and body. Bloodied and bruised, Blake seemed to be the most intact; a deep wound on the left side of her face stretching from below her jawline and settled just above her eyebrow. The wound went right over her eye but looked to have missed her iris completely.

"Sarah, check Weiss and Yang for vital signs then move to Blake." I said, moving myself to Ruby.

Next to her was her weapon, Crescent Rose, deployed in full force; her right hand clutching the trigger.

I knelt beside her to get a better look at her.

There was a lot of blood. It was everywhere, and there was more by the second. Had Ruby's outfit not been mainly red and black, I might have been able to assess her wounds by sight alone; but that was not the case.

She was bisected through her stomach, her legs completely detached. I looked around but couldn't find the missing appendages.

I hung my head and sighed before moving to check her vitals.

As soon as I touched her neck she inhaled sharply, her eyes popping open. "Soapie? Is that you?" She asked, her voice creaking from strain.

"Yes, it's me. I'm here little rose." I answered.

She tried to sit up but I stopped her and pushed her back down to the ground.

"Stay down little one." I said in the most reassuring voice I could manage.

"I can't feel my legs. Soapie, why can't I feel my legs?" She asked in a pained voice.

"You," I stopped and sighed, "You don't have legs Ruby." I finished.

She sat for a moment before she spoke again.

"A-Am I gonna make it?" She asked, her voice weak from the blood she was losing.

"..."

"Soapie?"

I didn't answer her, I just looked at her gravely. Slowly, I shook my head no. "You-you aren't going to make it Ruby. You have about five to ten minutes before you bleed out."

When she heard me speak those words, she visibly relaxed. It was almost like her knowing that everything - the war, the pain - was about to be over, gave her strength.

Whether or not it was me or the prospect of peace, I don't know, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I ever will.

She lifted her head from the ground and looked around, "Did anybody else make it?" She asked, her voice somehow sounding confident and strong at same time sounding weak and scared.

I turned to Sarah and called out to her, "Sarah, did anyone else make it?" I asked, somewhat scared of the answer myself.

She faced me and shook her head no, "Yang and Weiss were gone before they hit the ground, the debris sticking through them only sealed the deal. I'm moving to Blake now."

I turned back to the anxious and tired face of Ruby and hung my head. "Yang and Weiss are gone. We don't know about Blake."

At first, Ruby said nothing; only tears rolling down her cheeks.

After a minute, Ruby yawned. "I'm tired." She said.

My heart sank for it wouldn't be long now before she was gone.

"Hey Soapie?" Her weak, child-like voice questioned me.

It seemed that in death, the strong, confident, resourceful, and passionate Huntress role that she had oh so willingly filled and performed without hesitation, was all but gone.

Instead, it was replaced with the innocent, sweet, caring, and child-like teenager that I had first known her to be.

I was starting to cry now. I looked up and answered, "Yes little rose?"

She yawned again, "I'm tired. For right now, can we pretend nothing's wrong and can you tell me one last bedtime story? One about Huntsmen and Huntresses' battling for good against the forces of evil? Please Soapie?"

I looked her in the eyes as she used her famous puppy dog stare.

"Please?" She pleaded with me.

I nodded my head and quickly thought of a story as I tried to wipe the tears from my eyes.

I was crying a river of tears as I spoke with all of my strength, "Once upon a time, there was a group of people. Friends. The individuals that made up these friends were extraordinary. They were friends that loved each other as family. There's Chris, Sarah, Sam, Drake, Bucky, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, and...Ruby Rose." I hugged her and cried into her shoulder.

She just patted my back and tried to calm me down. "Don't cry Soapie, we'll be together again."

I kissed her forehead and hugged her tighter. I was so distraught that I didn't notice Ruby fade from the living in my arms.

My necklace flashed and the General's ghost appeared behind me.

He approached me and said, "Soap, you need to let her go."

I looked up at him and nodded. Still crying, I got up and backed up from what was left of Ruby.

The General knelt down beside her corpse and gently took her hand. "Come now little one."

He helped the ghost of Ruby up and onto her feet. "We have a party to get ready for and you need to get some rest."

"A party?" Ruby's ghost asked, her face confused. "Why are we going to a party?"

"There are some people there that I want you to meet; people that I think you may know. Summer Rose?" The General's ghost said to her.

Ruby's face lit up when she heard her mother's name.

Behind them a ray of light shined down from above and he started to lead Ruby to it.

Just before they reached it, Ruby turned around and ran back over to me and gave me a hug.

"Goodbye Soapie."

I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her back.

"Goodbye little rose."

* * *

**A/N: I cried while writing that.**


	38. Chapter 32: else, then what

**A/N: I hate typing on this new laptop. I miss my old one.  
**

**Also, heeeyyy! I am alive and college sucks. I miss high school, though I now have a new reason to write again and that's boredom.**

**At the bottom A/N, I have a few things that need to be addressed so please be sure to read them.**

* * *

Chapter 32: else, then what

* * *

**~Soap**

**Unknown location**

"I miss you Summer, I miss you so much." I said aloud to no one. "I wish you were still here; you would know what to do to make me stop crying and how to help me with what I'm feeling right now."

I sobbed into my hands as the cold, icy air threatened to freeze my tears, however my semblance ensured that they would not.

After a length of unknown time, I managed to calm myself down to the point that I could form rational thoughts again.

Slowly, I materialized the very blade that stole the innocents lives of so many people.

The very blade that destroyed an entire city.

That was the moment that everything started to go black...

* * *

**~Blake**

I stood there for a moment trying to fully process the events that had just unfolded.

When I finished, my mind kept coming back to one thing: that beautiful blade that Soap had thrown at Niri.

Something didn't quite make sense though.

Out of everybody that was currently taking up residence at the church, Sarah, Bucky, and myself knew the most about Soap.

With that said, it still felt as though he hid some things from us; I saw then that I was right.

What I still wasn't sure of was where Niri fit into the picture. I could only see what had been told to me.

There were still questions that had gone unanswered.

I had to find Niri and ask her a few questions; but first I had to talk to Sam and the others.

* * *

_"You know, you never did tell me what happened that night when you found me in that mountain top temple."_

_"There was a reason for that."  
_

_"That being?"_

_"I was afraid that you would run off if I told you."_

_"Well, I'm a bit too old to run now. Would you mind telling me now?"_

_"Why not?"_

* * *

**~Sarah**

It was very, very dark when I arrived at my destination.

The destination in question was an abandoned, mountain top temple long forgotten before even Ozpin was born.

Even with my faunus enhanced night vision, I could barely see.

_'How the hell am I going to find Chris?' _I thought to myself.

Just then I heard a familiar voice cry out in pain through the darkness.

"NO! STAY AWAY! THIS IS MY BODY!" I heard Chris scream into the night.

His voice sounded desperate, as if he was on the verge of death.

"STOP! I PROMISED I WOULD PROTECT HER!"

* * *

_"You weren't worried when you heard me screaming bloody murder?"_

_"Of course I was worried; I just had to find you before I could show it. Otherwise I wouldn't have found you to begin with."_

* * *

I started to move toward his voice. As I got closer, I noticed deep scratches and splotches of blood; both were very fresh and caused by a human.

After following his screams for a few more minutes, I finally located him behind a locked door that I had to force open.

I'll be honest, I didn't expect what I found.

When I forced open the door I came face to face with a brightly lit room riddled with archaic writing and ritual circles. The room itself only had three walls; the fourth was crumbling and exposed to the snowy world outside.

In the center of the room was Chris with his hair concerningly pitch black and another thing that was even more concerning was that his eyes were pitch black as well.

Chris was bent over in the center of the room surrounded by his own blood. A lot of it too, more than any human should have inside them.

I cautiously made my way to the center of the room with my weapons in hand.

When I was 15 feet from him, he suddenly rushed me with a very peculiar, ornate black blade in hand. A blade whose purpose I was very familiar with.

I blocked the charge and prepared for another.

He started charging again but fell halfway. He pushed himself up screaming, "WHY DID YOU TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME? SHE WAS MY ONLY LIGHT IN THIS WORLD!"

He laid there in the middle of the floor sobbing. "Sarah, I'm sorry! I'm sorry I couldn't protect you from those monsters!"

His eyes were flickering between pitch black and their normal color.

I slowly made my way to him and knelt down beside him. "I'm right here Chris. I'm fine."

His eyes were stable when he looked up at me still sobbing. "Is it really you Sarah?"

"Yes." I showed him the ring on my finger. "I promise."

His hair slowly changed back to it's normal pure white color at the sight of my ring.

He put his hand in mine and intertwined our fingers. After a moment of staring into his eyes, I bent down and kissed him. "Come on, you need to get some sleep."

He nodded his head and quietly asked in a childish voice, "You promise you won't be gone when I wake up?"

"I promise."

"Okay."

He laid his head on my lap as I teleported us to the wall.

A few minutes later when Chris was fast asleep, I spoke quietly, "You are my husband. I vowed to never leave your side and I meant it. Get some sleep Soap."

I laid my head against the wall behind me and closed my eyes.

* * *

A little while later, I contacted Blake.

_"Hey Blake?"_

_"Hey, where are you?" _She asked.

_"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Just get here as soon as you can, I'm going to need some help getting him out of here. You should be able to find me by following me through your bond."_

_"Yeah I can see that. I know where you are I just don't know how to get to you."_

_"Then just get Bucky to set up the autopilot on one of our recon bullheads." _I said remembering that we built one a few days ago for a mission but never had the need to use it.

_"I can't have him just fly me there?"_

_"No."_

I could almost hear Blake sigh before she responded, _"Fine."_

* * *

An hour later I heard the almost unnoticeable sound of our reconnaissance bullhead landing.

_"I'm here. Where the hell are you?" _She asked me.

_"I have no idea. Besides, you of all people should be able to find me by following your instincts."_

Blake didn't respond for a moment, _"What do you mean?"_

_"You are both a faunus and were almost an assassin for the White Fang; you should be able to find me with ease."_

"I know. And I have." I heard her say from the doorway.

"That was quick." I said.

"Don't mention it." She said as she looked over the room we were in. "Two questions. One, what is this room? Two, what on remnant happened?"

She sheathed her weapons as she made her way over to us.

"I don't really have an answer for one. As for two though, it appears that Chris's other side tried to take over."

Blake's face grew concerned when she heard this. "Why do you say that?"

"Because when I found him he was screaming, his hair was black, and he attacked me."

"He attacked you and his hair? That's how you knew?" Blake asked, trying to make sense of the situation.

"Yes, but the two things that confirmed it for me were the fact that his eyes were pitch black instead of their usual silver-brown and the fact that when he attacked me he did so with a weapon."

"Why is that important?"

"In all the years that I have known him, he has only ever used a weapon other than his gun once. That was when I got injured when we were rescuing Drake. It was only a small cut, but it was enough to set him off." I said.

"Actually, I think I remember him telling me about this. He said that the thing inside him uses his weapons as a way to come out."

I nodded. "Yep."

"Well, let's get Soap out of here." Blake said, about to grab Chris's arms.

"Sure, but we should probably stop his bleeding first." I said.

* * *

**A/N: So this is a rather random update. I was called for jury duty and sat in a room for a few hours so I got some typing done. I cannot promise regular updates, but I will update when I can.**

**Also, I have a question for you all. If I were to write it, would you guys enjoy some chapters containing some of the everyday things that Soap and co. do?**

**I ask because it seems to me that I have been giving you guys nothing but plot for a while. Let me know what you think.**

**Another thing, I have been revising the beginning of the story rather steadily and have been swapping from 3rd person to 1st person; so please check it out and let me know what you think.**

**I should be updating relatively soon with Blake's side of things but until then, have a good one.**


	39. Chapter 33: else are we supposed

****A/N: Everyday life is what this chapter will be about.  
****

****Enjoy.****

* * *

Chapter 33: else are we supposed

* * *

**~Blake**

I found the others easy enough. They were all gathered in the kitchen waiting for Bucky's newest creation of food marvel.

"Hey Blake." They all said as I walked in.

"Hey guys."

_"Do you have any idea what those loud noises were? We would check them out but we are a little preoccupied at the moment." _Drake asked, his mouth stuffed with food.

"Of course you're more interested in food than what's going on in the church." Sam said, rolling her eyes at her boyfriend as she picked up a piece of food herself.

"You remember that Niri person we picked up on the bounty mission?" I asked.

They all nodded.

"She attacked Soap." I responded.

Everybody in the kitchen, except BNTY, stopped moving and stared at me.

"What?" They all yelled at me in shock.

"Yeah." I confirmed.

"Why?"

"I don't know." I lied. I didn't want them to know about Soap's past quite yet.

They continued staring at me until Bucky spoke up, "You all act surprised but this really isn't that surprising. People attack him all the time; friend and foe. We've gotten used to it. Though it's still a pain in our asses considering that we usually get tasked with cleaning up."

"I think I remember Soap saying something about that before the bounty mission actually. Something about him not wanting us to go through what you guys have gone through." Yang said.

_"Since I joined these guys, there have been upwards of 30 different occasions where someone has tried to kill Soap. Keep in mind that I am the newest on BNTY; so like I said, this is normal."_

Ruby, Weiss, and Yang all sighed.

"You know, I'm somehow not all that surprised." Weiss said. "Especially knowing how crazy he is and what he does for a living."

Just then, I heard Sarah's voice in my head.

_'Hey Blake?' _

_'Hey, where are you?' _I asked her as I started to leave the room, or at least tried to. Sam's voice stopped to question me.

* * *

_"Do you actually know what happened after Blake left?"_

_"Actually I do."_

_"Really? How? I know you weren't there. You were still up on the mountain with me."_

_"Sam told me about it one time."_

_"Why? I imagine it was just normal everyday life."_

_"It was, at least after Blake managed to leave the room and dodge all the questions. That's why she told me about it. She said that it was the first day they had in a long time where they weren't fighting anything or worrying in general. Another reason was the shock that she got later on that day."_

_"Alright, continue. You got me interested. I want to know what this shock was. Start where Blake was leaving the room."_

_"Alright. She said that Blake was acting a little odd, so right before Blake left the room, she asked her where she was going..._

* * *

**~Sam**

"Where you going Blake?" I asked before she got to the door.

"I just remembered that Soap wanted me to check someplace out using the recon bullhead. Speaking of which, hey Bucky?"

"Yo, whatcha need?"

"Do you mind setting up the autopilot for me? I don't exactly know how." Blake asked, her face neutral. This was odd, usually Soap would ask Drake or myself to do something like that.

"Sure." Bucky said, putting down his apron.

"Thanks."

"Do you want one of us to come with you?" Yang asked.

"Not this time." Blake responded.

"Why not?" Ruby asked.

"He said he wanted me to go alone."

"How long will you be gone?" Weiss asked.

"No idea."

"Alright. Just be careful then Blakey."

Blake rolled her eyes at Yang's comment. "I will." She said as she turned to leave.

"Oh and Blake?"

She stopped. "Yeah?"

"When you get back you owe us an explanation." Yang said. "Starting with Soap and Sarah's full story."

Blake hesitated a moment before responding. "Are you sure? There a lot of things in their pasts even I have trouble reliving. It will be even harder for you guys."

"What do you mean relive?" Ruby asked.

Blake sighed before she quickly jotted down some coordinates on a piece of paper and handed it to Bucky. "Do you mind setting it for here?"

"Sure." Bucky replied, taking the piece of paper and leaving the room.

Blake jumped up onto the counter and began her explanation. "I can answer three questions before I have to leave. One from each of you. I'll start with Ruby's question; you wanted to know what I meant be relive, right?"

Ruby nodded her head.

"Do you remember how Soap and Sarah explained their bond to us?"

The rest of RWBY shook their heads.

"Well, as a result of how much time I've been spending with them and how much they trust me, a couple of days before the bounty mission we all subconsciously bounded with each other."

"So you can talk to them telepathically like they do?" Weiss asked.

"Yes."

"When did that start happening?"

"In the middle of the mission, right when everything was kicking off. Though I think it will be a while before I can use their semblances and they can use mine." She took a breath. "However, one of the things that I was able to do while Soap was still recovering was going through some of his memories."

"And?" Weiss asked.

"The version of his past that you know is a lot tamer than what actually happened. He kept a lot from us to protect us from the nightmares of what actually happened." Blake responded. "Yang, what's your question?"

Yang thought for a moment, "I actually have two questions, but both of them should be quick."

"That's fine." Blake responded.

"Even with all the secrecy, should we be wary of them?"

This question worried me. From what I could tell, Yang was not only putting her trust in Soap into question, but she was also questioning her trust in the rest of BNTY as well. I admit that I probably don't know Soap and Sarah as well as I should, but I still trusted them. I was curious as to how Blake would respond, since she knew the entire story.

"No. Even with all the lies, they have only done so where absolutely necessary. What's your second question?"

"What's Soap's real name and why does he hide it?"

"His real name is Chris Gunnel. As for why, you will have to ask him yourself. While I do know the reason, I am not one for speaking in his place. I have to go, I'll see you guys when I get back."

* * *

"Do you think she was telling the truth?" Yang asked Ruby and Weiss after Blake was gone.

"She was telling the truth." I confirmed.

"How could you tell?"

"The face she was making as she was starting to leave the room. It was the same that Soap and Sarah make when they are talking to each other telepathically which makes me believe that she was talking to Sarah or Soap when she started to leave."

"What do you think they were telling her to do?" Ruby asked.

"Likely what she said they were telling her to do. They were likely telling her to check something out with the recon bullhead."

"That's reassuring I guess." Yang said.

"Just try to take your mind off it until they return." I said.

"That's not exactly easy to do. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Actually, I do. Is anyone willing to take up a friendly bet with me?" I asked.

"That depends. What are we betting on?" Weiss responded.

I looked at her strangely for a moment.

"What?" She asked.

"I never imagined you to be the gambling type."

"When I was younger, my butler Klein, my brother Whitley would often place bets on how long my father would be away for business trips."

_"Who usually won?" _I heard my goofball of a boyfriend ask.

"Actually I did. My brother usually chalked it up to a 'beginners luck'. Anyways, what are we betting on?"

"Whether or not Blake has a thing for Soap and Sarah." I said, smirking.

I heard Drake facepalm himself behind me, _"You know, as much as I know you deny it, you really do take after Sarah in many ways."_

"Noooooo." I responded childishly. "I just want to get back at her for all the times she's made fun of me."

I heard Drake sigh loudly.

"Wait." Weiss said. "So we're betting on weather or not Blake has a thing for Soap_ or _Sarah, or both Soap _and_ Sarah."

"The second one." I responded.

"OK. I get it. So you're betting on whether or not Blake is bi, and specifically if she wants to bang Soap and Sarah." I heard Ruby say.

Everybody in the room just stared at her.

"What?" She asked.

However she was met with silence.

"Ohh, I get it. You're all surprised that I know about sex aren't you."

We all nodded in agreement.

"I'm 15, turning 16 in two weeks, why is that so hard to believe?" She asked, exasperated.

Yang answered for all of us, "Because Ruby, you still believe in fairy tales."

The rest of us just nodded our heads in agreement.

While everybody else was still in shock, I saw an opportunity and took it. "Well then Ruby, since you aren't as innocent as we thought, why don't you tell us what your preference is. By the way Weiss, I'm betting for Blake being bi and liking both of them and let's say whoever loses has to do something embarrassing." **(A/N)**

"I'll take that bet and the consequences." Weiss said shaking my hand.

Ruby looked to be lost in thought as she thought of how to respond to my question.

"You don't have to answer the question Ruby if you don't want." Yang reassured her.

"It's fine. I don't mind telling." She said taking a breath, "I am a lesbian." She said proudly.

"I kinda figured." Yang said as Drake nodded his head in agreement. Weiss was the only one that didn't respond.

_"How did you figure that out?"_

Ruby's pride quickly turned to horror once she realized what Drake was asking.

"I'd rather not say since my big sis is in the room." She said, slightly panicking. "I just remembered, I need to service Crescent Rose! I still haven't since yesterday."

"You know, now that you mention it, I should probably service my weapons as well." I said, also remembering that I hadn't done so yet.

I checked the time, "We should probably do that and go to bed it's almost midnight. Thankfully we don't have anything to do for a while so we don't have to get up early."

Everybody in the room agreed. As we exited the kitchen, we split up and went to our preferred area to service our weapons.

Before Ruby and Yang split off, Yang spoke directly to Ruby, "Don't think this is over. I will have an answer as to how you figured out you like girls."

Ruby stood there not moving for a moment until I put my arm around her neck, dragging her to the garage.

"Come one Ruby. We have guns to clean.

* * *

All in all, cleaning our weapons took about an hour which was shorter that usual but that was because Ruby and I decided to not design any new attachments for our weapons tonight.

After we finished cleaning our weapons and started towards our rooms, I pulled Ruby aside. "Go on ahead Drake, I'll be there in a minute."

_"Alright." _Drake said, following the others.

Once everybody was gone, I quietly asked Ruby a question, "So, how did you find out that you like girls?"

Her face turned a very deep red as she proceeded to cover her face with her hands.

"Come on Ruby, tell me. I promise I won't tell anyone." I said, trying to reassure her.

"You promise?"

"Yes, I promise."

Ruby took a deep breath before responding, "Fine. I know because of two reasons. The first is because I walked in on Weiss when she was getting out of the shower, and when I did, my body felt extremely hot as I looked at her naked body before she caught me staring."

"So you like Weiss?"

Ruby nodded her head, still covering her face with her hands.

"What is the second reason?"

"Please don't tell Yang this, but a day or two following when I walked in on Weiss I looked up...things on the net and found that only pictures of girls made me feel the same way."

I smiled, "Well your secret is safe with me Ruby. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Sam."

* * *

****A/N: Holy shit that took a turn I didn't expect.****

**Just a heads up, but the next chapter after this might be similar in that we will be following Sam around while Blake, Soap, and Sarah get their shit together. And hopefully we'll actually get to the place that I wanted to go in this chapter.**

****Two questions today:****

****1.) How did I do on writing a everyday life kind of chapter? I feel like I may have added a little too much plot to start it off, but I was working with what I had.****

****2.) What should the consequence be for losing the bet that Sam and Weiss are doing?****

****Let me know.****


	40. Chapter 34: to be doing here?

****A/N: So here's the thing. I suck at doing these, so I hope I am doing filler type chapters correctly.  
****

* * *

Chapter 34: to be doing here?

* * *

**~Sam**

"So who wants to do something fun?" I asked as the others came stumbling into the kitchen.

"Like what?" Ruby asked, looking somewhat nervous.

"Well, we could go shopping." I suggested.

_"As long as there is food involved, I don't care."_

"Always thinking with your stomach, eh Drake?" Yang asked.

_"Always."_

We laughed at his response.

"So, shopping?" I asked.

"Well, this would be a good opportunity to get to know you three. Other than training us and passing you in the hall, we really don't know much about you guys. So why not?" Weiss said.

Team RWBY all shook their heads in agreement.

"Lets get going then." I said.

"Actually, I'm going to stay here. Soap wanted to check on someone." Bucky said.

"Who?" I asked.

"He wanted me to see if _they_ are still alive."

"Oh, ok. Please be careful if they are. You know what will happen if you get too close to them." I said.

"I am more than aware Sam; I saw what happened to the last guy that got close to them. Besides, you're not my mother; don't tell me what to do." Bucky said, leaving.

"Just making sure." I said.

"What was that about?" Weiss asked.

"I can't actually tell you. But don't worry about that. Come on."

* * *

**In the shopping district of Vale...**

"So how did you meet Soap and Sarah?" Yang asked as we walked out of a Dust shop.

"They found me in a back alley dying from starvation." I said.

"Why were you there in the first place?" Weiss asked.

"I ran away from home and after three weeks of running, I ended up there."

"What did you run from?" Ruby asked, barely able to hold onto all the weapon magazines she bought.

"My family. Let's just say that they aren't exactly the nicest people towards me. The only reason they cared about me was because I was next in line to head the family business."

"What business was it?" Weiss asked.

"Krestfield Shipping."

"Really?" Weiss asked. "So then, that would make you...

"Yep, that makes me a heiress like you Weiss."

Ruby, Yang, and Weiss just stared at me for a moment with their mouthes open.

"Hold on. Last I checked, you died in a shipping accident and were lost at sea. Your body was supposed to have washed up onto the Vale shoreline two years ago." Weiss said.

"That would be thanks to Soap. When he found me, he changed my name and used his position as the top bounty hunter in Vale to write that report."

"If you're here, then who is it that I see at all the press conferences for Krestfield Shipping?" Yang asked.

"That would be my sister Amy. She's two years younger than me and has apparently taken over as the new heiress for the company." I said.

"Ohh." I heard Ruby say behind me.

"Anything else you want to ask?"

"Yeah. Where's Drake?" Yang asked.

"Probably buying food. Again." I said.

"Here's a question." Yang said.

"Yeah?"

"You know how when Soap and Sarah lose their cool something happens to their hair? Does anything like that happen to you?" Yang asked.

"Kinda. Depending on my mood, the color of my wings change. I found this out after my aura was unlocked." I said.

"Really?" Ruby asked.

_"Yep, it's really cute when her wings turn pink when she gets embarrassed. For instance, when I walk in on her while she's in the bathroom." _Drake said, walking towards us while chowing down on a cheeseburger.

"Of course you had to bring that up." I said, punching him in the stomach.

"I don't think I have ever seen your wings any color than white though." Yang said.

"That would be, once again, thanks to Soap. When we found out this was a side effect of the method we used to unlock my aura, Soap developed a drug that stops it from happening in most situations. And believe me, I learned my lesson to always take it before I do anything in the day."

"What do you mean most situations? Sounds like it doesn't always work." Ruby said.

"Well, in the situations that it doesn't, it's not supposed to."

"Meaning?" Ruby asked.

"When I get angry, my wings turn red. When Soap designed the drug, he left anger alone so that if I needed to intimidate someone, I could."

"Alright, while we're on the subject, what happens when Drake gets angry?" Weiss asked.

I looked at my boyfriend and just smiled. "You want to answer this one?"

I heard Drake sigh before he answered. _"When I get angry, my cloak bursts into flames."_

"What happens when Bucky gets angry?" Weiss asked.

"Nothing. Unlike us, Bucky already had his aura unlocked when he joined Soap; though I have heard that you don't want to get him angry."

"Why?" Weiss asked.

"Because he becomes somewhat blind to the people around him and will attack until he either runs out of energy, is incapacitated, or nothing is left to attack."

"Oh."

* * *

"Now I don't mean to cut our time short, but we should probably get back." I said.

"Why? It's only 1:30." Ruby said.

"I know. This is prime time for people to attack us and I would rather you guys not get caught up in that. So let's just relax for the rest of the day." I said.

* * *

****A/N: I realize that things should probably happen more in a filler chapter like where they went to eat, what they bought, or how many times Sam and Drake were shot at during this chapter but really just didn't acknowledge it or care. But since Sam didn't notice the 15 different sniper bullets wizzing past her head during the cours of this chapterr alone, I'm not going to mention them.****

**Also sorry for the short chapter.**

****P.S. the next chapter will be up before Christmas.****


	41. Chapter 35: For it is only

****A/N: I don't mind saying that I wrote this chapter before the last one  
****

* * *

Chapter 35: For it is only

* * *

**~Blake**

We almost had him to the bullhead before he woke up again.

"You ok Soap?" I asked after we set him down against a wall.

"I'll be fine. Just what exactly happened?" He asked groggily.

"What do you remember?" Sarah asked.

"I remember talking to Niri and teleporting away. That's the last thing I remember."

"When I found you, your eyes and hair were pitch black. If I had to guess, I would say that the thing inside you tried to take over." Sarah said.

"Why do you say that?" Soap asked.

"Because you attacked me when I found you."

"Yeah, that's...that sounds like a pretty good indication." He responded, almost laughing.

"Soap, we're being serious." I said, concerned.

"I know, I know. Just trying to make a tense situation a little less tense."

Sarah and I sighed.

"Do you know why that happened?" I asked.

"It was more than likely a result of the emotional state talking to Niri left me in. If I remember correctly, I believe I was in a similar emotional condition when I stabbed myself with those black dust crystals." He said.

We were quiet for a bit while Soap regained some of his strength.

_"Do we tell him now?"_ I asked Sarah in my head.

_"Now's as good a time as any. Why not?" _I heard her say back.

I cleared my throat to get his attention. "Since now's as good as ever, I want to tell you something."

"That being?"

"Apparently, a few days before the bounty mission we bonded." I said.

Soap didn't say anything for a moment. "That makes a little more sense."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"I'll tell you later, but first I have a few questions."

"Alright."

"Are you bonded to Sarah as well?"

"Yes. We have already had full conversations in our heads."

"Alright. Then I guess that means that you are bonded to us separately as opposed to together."

I shook my head questioningly at him. "What are you talking about Soap?"

"Hmm? Oh, don't mind me. I'm just thinking of future things to research."

"What else did you want to ask?" I asked as I rolled my eyes at him.

"Can you use our semblances?"

I shook my head no. "I was originally supposed to get here by using Sarah's semblance but when I found that I couldn't I had to get Bucky to set up the bullhead for me."

"Hmm. That might mean that you'll have to let the bond mature before you can." Soap said to himself quizzically.

"Anything else?" Sarah asked.

"One more question." He said standing up on his own power. "Have you been poking around in my memories?"

"A little bit." I said.

"What were you looking for?"

"I was looking to see if you were lying to us." I said somewhat ashamed.

"About?"

"Anything." I said.

"And, what did you find?"

"I found that while you for the most part always told us the truth, it wasn't always the whole truth. When you didn't tell us something, it was usually to protect us from the pain behind the actual truth."

"That would be correct." He said as he started walking up the ramp into the bullhead. "Come on Blake, I want to show you something."

* * *

**A little while later...**

"Where are we going Soap?" I asked him over the roar of the bullhead's engines.

As we flew, I watched as the landscape changed from snowy mountain tops that lay to the far south of the kingdom to the rolling hillside to the west of the mountains.

Soap didn't respond for a moment, "You'll see."

"Are you sure about this Chris?" Sarah asked him.

"I'm sure. This is something she needs to see." He said. "And something I need to get over." I heard him say under his breath.

A few minutes later the sight of a long abandoned and destroyed village came into view.

Even from this distance I could tell that the village was covered in what looked like snow. But that didn't make any sense, it only snowed seasonally around where we were. It wasn't until we were almost there that I finally figured out that the village was covered in not snow, but ash.

As soon as the village was within walking range, Soap set the bullhead down.

"We're here." He said in a neutral tone, getting out.

As we approached the ruins, I could see misty apparitions wandering around. When we got closer, I could see that each one was a person.

I stopped when I saw them. "Ghosts?"

"Yep, but now is not the time. Come on Blake." Sarah said.

Without hesitating at the entrance - like most people would at a sight such as this - Soap entered the village.

_"__He really seems to know his way around here." _I said to Sarah after a few minutes of following them around.

_"Just keep up and don't get lost; believe me, getting lost around here is the last thing you want to do."_

_"Have you been here before?" _I asked her.

_"No. But I can feel the residual energy that stains the ground here; getting lost out here with this kind of residual energy lurking in the ground spells instant death for anyone that wanders. A death worse than any Grimm could give you." _She responded.

_"What? So Grimm aren't the cause of deaths out here?"_

_"No."_

_"Then what is?"_

_"Just keep up, you'll understand soon."_

I followed Soap and Sarah through the maze of ruins until we came to a house that was more intact than the others; but intact was a relative term. At the house in front of me, the porch was still standing and had a few personal affects left on it.

Two black splotches were stained into the the wood at the base of the steps.

From my time in the White Fang, I didn't have to ask what the splotches were; they were dried pools of blood. Very, very old blood.

On the porch were two adult sized rocking chairs, two child sized rocking chairs, and a table in between the two bigger rocking chairs. The railing that went around the porch was also still intact as was the wall that it was connected to.

His hand on one of the railings, Soap walked up the stairs to the porch and slowly opened the front door.

Even from where I was standing, I could tell that the inside was completely destroyed and burned to ash.

Soap sighed heavily before he shut the door calmly and approached the rocking chairs. Quietly, he righted all of them and the table before approaching the top of the steps and turning to the railing next to the stairs.

Soap undid his holster and belts holding his katanna's. He placed his gun on top of the railing and leaned his swords next to the banister before sitting down on the top step.

_"What is he doing?" _I asked Sarah.

_"Taking off his weapons."_

_"Didn't you tell me that this was not a place that you wander around in?"_

_"Yes, but even the Grimm know to respect the dead. At least at this village." _She responded. Her answer only left me more confused though.

After Soap was sitting, he motioned for us to do the same.

Sarah was one step ahead of me and was already sitting next to him, her weapons next to his and her head on his shoulder.

I quietly followed suit and placed my weapon next to Sarah's and sat down next to her.

* * *

We sat there for a while before I spoke, "What are we waiting for Soap? What's going on?"

"You see the ghosts right?" He responded.

"Yeah?"

"Good. Now watch."

I focused on the ghosts that were moving around in front of me. I watched them for a while before a kid no older than five walked up the steps and sat down in one of the child sized rockers.

I stared at the kid for a moment; something about him seemed very familiar. The kid in question had brown hair and brown eyes.

I stared at him until our eyes happened to meet. The kid smiled and reached his hands up into the air as an apparition walked through me and knelt down before handing the kid a cookie and patting his head.

I spoke again. "This is a memory isn't it?"

Soap nodded his head, not removing his focus from the ghostly events happening before him.

"Is this a part of the General's life? Everything seems a little too modern for his time unless it was towards the end of his life." I asked as I continued to stare at the kid.

Soap however said nothing.

Finally it clicked; I knew why the kid seemed so familiar. He reminded me a lot of Soap. Curious, I spoke up, "Hey Soap?"

"Yeah?"

"Why does this little kid over here remind me of you?" I asked.

Soap didn't respond.

"Why doesn't this feel like the General's memories?"

"Because, that's not the General Blake. Although it is a Gunnel. Actually, these are his memories."

"Really? That little kid over there?" I asked, looking back at Soap.

"Yep." Soap responded.

"Who is it?" I asked.

As soon as the words left my mouth, the village began to rebuild itself. I watched as a masked person came from behind and snatched the child, swiftly putting a knife against his throat. The village around me was in flames now.

I watched as the child's parents were killed before his eyes and the child snapped. The child broke free from the thug's hold and turned on him with his own weapon. As his weapon finally went to deal a killing blow, I gasped and everything stopped.

I heard a voice behind me ask sadly, "You finally figure it out Blake? Figure out whose memory it is?"

I nodded my head as my eyes met Soap's. "Yours. This is your memory."

"That's right Blake. It's mine." He sighed before shedding a single tear. Quickly he wiped it away before continuing, "Welcome to my home Blake. Welcome to Valhalla."

* * *

_"I always did want to ask."_

_"Ask what?"_

_"Why you showed Blake your past like that."_

_"Well, I wanted her to see things the way I saw them. Plus I wanted to finally be free of those haunting memories."_

_"Did it work?"_

_"Yes, or at least for a while anyways."_

* * *

****A/N: I don't think I been more excited for a chapter to come out.****

****Why you ask?****

****Because after this, we can stop using "I watched my entire village die in front of me" mentality for Soap. Well, almost. I think.****

**Keep in mind that I am writing this before chapter 34, so I don't know what happened in the last chapter.**

**I may have Soap, Sarah, and Blake be back before the end of the last chapter. Maybe some one will die (probably not.) Who knows what future me will do? I sure as hell don't.**

* * *

**With that out of the way, be sure to send me any questions or comments you might have as I am always happy to talk.**

**See ya guys next time.**

* * *

**Edit: 12-22-2016 (Before this chapter goes up.) No actual changes were done to this chapter, I just have a comment to add.**

**Lone Wolf of Shadows: Be patient. They will be showing up in the next chapter along with SLVR**


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